There's More to Life than the Master Emerald
by Skestar
Summary: What starts as a simple search for the shards of the Master Emerald becomes another struggle against Dr. Eggman when Knuckles meets a young echidna girl who seems to be able to provide him with answers about Angel Island.
1. Chapter 1

It was 11:00 at night and, you were gliding. You knew it was getting late and you needed someplace to land and stay the night or to at least find out where you are. You've been traveling all morning and weren't familiar with part of the land.

_Great! Now it's so dark I can't see anything!_ you thought angrily as the moon passed behind a cloud making it pitch black.

You weren't sure exactly where you were, but you knew you were above water because you could hear the waves gently crashing below, and you knew better than to land in the water. A few more minutes passed and you almost give up on finding land. Suddenly, you saw something glimmer in the distance.

_What in the world could that be?_ you wondered as you approached the dim light. Though it was pitch black, you noticed that there was a strange shadow that was floating in the air underneath the glowing light.

_It looks like... my home..._ you thought, staring at what you now presumed to be a floating island.

_I must investigate._

You eventually landed on what actually was a giant floating island. It was wild and seemingly uninhabited. You followed that glowing light until you arrived at an alter. You slowly walked up the steps, unable to turn away from the light. As you approached, you notice that it was a massive emerald!

"The Master Emerald" you whispered is awe.

It was so beautiful, you couldn't help but be drawn closer. Suddenly you stopped. You could hear someone snoring quietly nearby but you couldn't see where it was coming from.

_ Right, _you thought, _every Master Gem needs a registered guardian to exist, but where are the others from this island? _

Your curiosity of the tribe from this island soon subsided and you continued slowly approaching the Master Emerald. Suddenly, you felt something alive under your foot as you climbed the next stair.

"OWWW! WHAT THE...?" yelled the guy you stepped on.

Well at least you knew where the snoring was coming from.


	2. Chapter 2

"I-I'm, so sorry, I-" you stuttered.

"You what?" asked the angry figure, "WERE TRYING TO STEAL MY EMERALD?"

"N-no I-" you tried to say but stopped when the figure took a swing at you with his fist.

"What was that for?" you yelled, dodging his attack.

"For attempting to steal MY emerald!" he replied angrily.

You stepped back and continued to block the barrage of punches he sent at you.

"You're a looney... " you muttered.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" he yelled.

You scoffed and told him to back off or that you'd fight back.

"Then fight!" he growled.

You did and he was taken aback that you could box moderately well. You take him off guard with a kick and he falls to the ground. You took the opportunity to dart away, but he soon got up and chased after you.

_If I get deep enough into the woods, he'll NEVER see me in this darkness_ you thought and soon ducked behind a bush.

He ran to the spot were you disappeared.

"Where are you? I know your here somewhere!" he shouted.

He was then suddenly quiet. You knew he was trying to listen for you and you knew that he'd be able to find you because you were breathing so heavily from running.

_I wish I was in better shape. . ._

He soon did find you but before he could hurt you, you got out of the way. You ran again and he chased you to the edge of the island. You almost ran straight off, but stepped back just in time and turned to face the aproaching shadowy figure.

"No... please don't push me off... please," you pleaded, as if you could tell what he was going to do. The thought of drowning brought tears to your eyes. It came with horrible memories that you didn't want to think about at the time. This gave him an opening and he quickly punched you in the face.

_Oh, he's strong! _you thought dizzily as the moon finally passed out from behind the cloud.

You began losing consciousness, but you saw your attacker finally, though it was brief. He saw you too and he looked shocked for some reason. You felt yourself fall backwards and then pass out.


	3. Chapter 3

As the moon got out of the clouds, the red echidna saw his tresspasser for the first time. He observed you momentarily. Long, lilac locks of hair that ended in a deeper purple and curls in a similar fashion as your bangs did. A simple and slightly short orchid dress with a deep purple strap around your waist and matching sandals. Most importantly though, he noticed what species you were.

_She's... an echidna! And a pretty one at that..._ he thought as a look of surprise came across his face. It' had been too long since he'd seen a live echidna besides himself. He caught you before you fell and carried you back to the altar of the Master Emerald. After gently placing you on a step near the top and then sitting down 2 steps above you, he looked at you and wondered who you were, where you were from and how you got there. As his mind wandered, he slowly dozed off. After a little while, he was awakened by a soft moan.

You slowly opened your eyes to see that crazy guardian again.

"AH! DON'T TOUCH ME YOU MANIAC!" you shouted, backing away from him.

"Maniac, what? You're the one who tried to steal MY emerald!" he said confusedly and angrily.

"What? I never even touched YOUR emerald! I was just using it to see where there was land and... well... it's pretty! I wanted a closer look at it!" you explained with a defensive pout.

"Pfft! You think I'm going to buy that?" he asked in disbelief.

"Well I'd hope so! It's the truth!" you yelled. You were starting to lose your patience with this guy.

_How could anyone be so untrusting?_

Your anger turned into sympathy as you thought about his predicament and asked about what happened to everyone else.

"I... really don't know.." he replied bluntly.

"Oh, well then who'll take over the job of guardian?"

"I... don't know," he replied again.

You begin wondering what he DOES know and sigh. "Well do you know ANYTHING about the seven islands of the skies?"

"Huh? Seven islands of the skies...?"

You took that as 'absolutely nothing'. You sighed again; it was going to be a _long _night...


	4. Chapter 4

"The 7 islands of the skies", you explained, "are 7 floating islands just like this one. This is Angel Island, right?"

"Yeah," he answered.

" Well," you continued, "it's the most unique of the islands."

"How?" he asked with a puzzled look. "I'll get to that in a minute," you said, "first let me explain the gems on the islands. Th-"

"WHAT? ALL the islands have a gem like this?" he asked, cutting you off. You sighed and continue.

"Yes, of course. Now there are, as I said, 7 islands. Each one has a name corresponding to their gem except for Angel Island."

"Why is it Angel Island then?" he asked, interrupting again.

"I SAID IN A MINUTE!" you yelled, losing your patience again. That shut him up, but he gave you a glare.

"Anyway, each island is named for the element their gem represents. My island, Thunder Island, had the Master Amethyst, which represents electricity. Lava Island has the Master Ruby, gem of fire, Gale Island has the Master Topaz, gem of wind, Cascade Island has the Master Sapphire, gem of water, Frigid Island has the Master Aquamarine, gem of ice, you have the Master Emerald, gem of earth and finally, Holy Island has the Master Diamond, gem of heaven."

"Wow, I never knew that there were other islands like this one..." the other guy said, somewhat in awe.

"Actually," you said, "your island is quite a bit different from the other islands as I said before."

"How?" he asked.

"Well first of all, instead of the gem being the true power, you have 7 smaller ones - Chaos Emeralds I believe - and the Master Emerald controls them. All the other islands' powers come directly from their Master gem. They're all different too. The Master Sapphire can control water, the Master Aquamarine can control temperatures below O degrees Celsius, the Master Ruby can control fire and temperatures above O degrees Celsius, The Master Topaz can control wind, the Master Amethyst controls energy-"

"What?" he said, cutting you off again.

"Stop cutting me off!" you snapped. He gave you what looked like a glare and a pout put together and closed his mouth.

"_Anyway_," you continued, "yes, the Master Amethyst can control energy for either healing or destruction. The thing is that this energy is the energy of the one using the Master Amethyst, and over-exertion can cause the one using it to pass out or maybe even die."

"Die...?" he said quietly.

"Yes. It happened before, but it was a stupid move on the user's behalf. I don't even know what they did, but it happened. Hmmm... what else? Oh, right. The Master Diamond is a healing gem. It can heal anything simply from using divinity from heaven."

"Are the Chaos Emeralds all that makes my island different from the other?" He asked.

"No," you replied, "it also has another trait that I'm sure has saved it from destruction. Your island is known as Angel Island not because it floats in the air, but because it floats on water. It's the only one able to do so. In fact, not floating is how my island ended up in the bottom of the ocean and my entire civilization was destroyed." As you said this, a tear gently rolled down your cheek.

"Oh, I suppose someone stole your gem?" he asked.

"No you replied, "our guardian died."

"W-what? How would that make a difference?" he asked, a little freaked out.

"What? Don't you know anything?" you asked with a sigh.

He blushed with frustration and yelled " I KNOW PLENTY!" You chuckled and sighed again and he blushed a little deeper. Regardless, you continued.

"Well, if a gem's guardian dies, it "knows" and will disappear from this world... in physical form anyways."

"Physical form?" he asked, confused one again.

"Yes, physical form. Its spirit is set free and its physical form disappears."

"Is there any way to get it back?" He asked.

"Actually, there is", you reply cheerfully. "If the new chosen guardian proves themself to the spirit, the spirit of the gem will come back and a physical form will be rebuilt. Most tribes avoid this by selecting a fill-in guardian the day after choosing the initial guardian. Unfortunately, our guardian died a few hours after being chosen because of a broken heart."

"How can you possibly die from a broken heart?" he asked bluntly in a skeptical tone.

You yelled angrily: "it could happen! I'm sure if someone were to fall in love that deeply, you could die!" You were a strong believer that love was the most powerful thing in the world so naturally you'd defend its power.

"I don't think so... uh... whoever you are."

"My name's Lorraine Amethyst, not 'whoever you are'", you said sharply.

"Well how am I supposed to know that? I just met you!" he asked sourly. You just scoffed and remained silent for a minute or two.

_Man, this guy's really getting on my nerves. He should be at least a LITTLE grateful that I'm telling him all this._

Finally, you calmed down and asked him quietly what his name was.

"I'm Knuckles the Echidna," he replied in a more positive tone then before.

"Well Knuckles, you think love is so weak, would you believe it's what'll restore my island?" you asked in an arrogant voice.

"What? No way. How's that supposed to work?" he asked.

"Well," you explained, "to prove yourself to a gem, you must complete its requirement of a set emotion or state".

"What?" he asked, as confused as ever. You scoffed and continued.

"Each gem has an emotion or state as linked to it as the elements. The Master Sapphire has sadness, the Master Aquamarine has distance and loneliness, the Master Ruby has anger, the Master Topaz has kindness, the Master Diamond has purity, the Master Amethyst has love and the Master Emerald has simplicity. As you can see, simplicity is reflected on the look of the island."

"Are you saying I'm simple?" he asks angrily.

"No", you said frowning.

_But I'm not saying you aren't either, you horribly uninformed boy. _

"I mean... well... look around! Do you see any technology?"

"No..." he answered slowly.

"Right!" you said, "it's very simple and full of nature. Exactly what the Master Emerald needs to thrive."

"Oh, I see", he said with a slight grin.

"So I suppose you have to fall in love then, right? Is that how you'll get the Master Amethyst back?" he asked.

"Heh", you chuckled, "you're finally catching on eh? Yeppers! That's my goal. There a bonus too. If I fall in love with 'one who guards another', something good will happen."

"What? 'One who guards another'? What's that supposed to mean?" he asked as confused as ever.

"I... really don't know," you replied truthfully, "but I'll know it if I do!"

"Well thanks for all the information, Lorraine," Knuckles grinned.

You grinned back saying "please, call me Lorr"!


	5. Chapter 5

After the conversation ended, you stood up, stretched, yawned and asked Knuckles where the nearest town was.

"Oh, it's not too far," he replied while pointing in its direction. He then asked why you wanted to know where the town was.

"Oh, you ask too many questions", you sighed, "but if you must know, I'm tired and want to go to bed".

"Well... y-you can stay here if you want", he stuttered awkwardly.

You were surprised by this; you never thought a guy that was trying to practically kill you would turn around and offer you to stay the night. You grinned slowly and accepted his offer.

"Where do I sleep?" you asked, looking around.

"Wherever you want to, but don't touch my Emerald," he replied.

With a sigh you walked down the steps of the alter and laid down on the grass at the bottom.

"Happy?" you asked flatly.

Knuckles didn't reply, but simply looked down at you with a small smirk and then looked up at the stars and began to doze off again. You sighed and shook your head and then soon fell asleep.

You woke up surprisingly early the next day and see Knuckles still asleep next to the Master Emerald. You silently tiptoed up to him and looked at him. A grin spread across your face as you noticed how handsome he was in the morning sun. Your grinned broadened a bit until you realized that you were smiling.

_Wow, that shallow. It's not what's on the outside that counts after all_, you thought as you descended the steps. _But then again, it WAS really nice of him to allow me to stay. I should do something for him._

You thought for a while on what to do and then it hit you: hunger pains.

_Oh, I haven't eaten for a while have I? Hmm, maybe I'll go find us some breakfast. That should be a big enough 'thank you'._

You ventured out into the forest surrounding the altar and, after an hour or so, you came out with a tasty fruit medley. He was just waking up as you came along. He sat up and stretched as he watched you walk up to him.

"Whatcha got there?" he asked as you sat down beside him.

"Breakfast of course!" you smiled.

"Thanks," he said slowly while grabbing some of the meal.

As you ate, he would often glance over to you with a look of curiosity, discomfort and shyness. His face was a little red too.

"What's your problem?" you asked with a raised eyebrow.

"N-nothing!" he stuttered as he blushed deeper. You smile and continue eating.

After you were done eating, he thanked you again for the breakfast and you thanked him for letting you stay the night.

"Now if you excuse me, I must be off", you said airily, "for I must continue my pursuit of love. My true love may be next door or a million miles away. Either way, I'll never know unless I search."

"That's a dumb philosophy," he commented bluntly. "How exactly do you know who you love if you don't stick around long enough to get to know anyone anyways?"

You were taken by surprise on this question. It was so simple, you overlooked it.

"Well, you have a point. Do you... want me to stay here for a while?" you asked sweetly. He froze.

"I uh... umm ... well... i-if you want to... I mean... uh... well t-there are a lot of guys around here so..." he stuttered as his face turned as red as the rest of him.

"You seem shy. Are you awkward around all girls or am I special or something?" you chuckled.

"What? I-I'm not awkward OR shy! I'm just having... an off day, yeah," he tried to explain.

You grinned at his attempt at lying but your smile soon faded as someone you didn't know began approaching in on a weird flying machine.

"Knuckles", you said, trying to warn him.

"I really AM having a bad day!" he continued, ignoring you.

"Knuckles", you repeated, desperate for him to listen.

"Ya know, I am allowed to have ONE off day every now and then..." he continued.

"KNUCKLES!" you yelled, getting fed up of him ignoring you.

"What?" he asked angrily. He wasn't too pleased with you interrupting him. But alas, it was too late; the unknown man's machine already had a hold of the Master Emerald.


	6. Chapter 6

Knuckles turned around quickly with a gasp. "EGGMAN!" he yelled. The name seemed familiar to you, but you weren't sure where you'd heard it before.

Knuckles charged at Dr. Eggman, but missed him and hit the Master Emerald instead. The gem shattered into nearly two dozen pieces from the blow.

"Oh, why do you keep doing that, Knucklehead?" Eggman huffed. "Forget it! I can still use the Chaos Emeralds, and surely you haven't broken all of _them_ as well!"

And with that he was off.

"Y-YOU IDIOT!" you yelled, "DO YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN N-" but you stopped yelling as you felt Angel Island begin to plummet.

You then screamed as loud as you could and quickly put your arms around Knuckles tightly. You were shaking all over and you soon nestled your head between his head and his shoulder. Tears ran silently and relentlessly down your cheeks and onto Knuckles. The image of Thunder Island flashed over and over in your mind. Aside from then, you were never this scared in your life.

Knuckles, on the other hand had no idea why you were making such a big deal of it; this kind of thing has happened lots of times and he wasn't scared at all. He was cool and collected until you held onto him for dear life. He felt every muscle in his body tense up and his face turn crimson. You were too busy having a breakdown to notice, but Knuckes was actually trying to talk to you, to comfort you. Unfortunately, though he could open his mouth to speak, no words came out. You were paralyzed by fear and he was paralyzed by you. He felt useless because he couldn't go after Eggman and he hated you for that. At the same time, seeing you like this made his heart twinge and he wasn't sure why. He could feel your tears flow down his shoulder. They were warm, wet and a tad unfamiliar to him.

Finally, the island hit the water with a gargantuan splash. You were still clinging to Knuckles for dear life, but soon slowly let go and collapsed to the ground, sobbing. That horrible freefall sensation was gone, but the nightmares it brought to you still lingered in your mind.

"L-lorr," Knuckles said weakly after regaining some speech capabilities. You looked up and, in a sad, pitiful voice, asked what he wanted. Knuckles looked down into your big, blue eyes filled with tears, fear and despair and lost his voice once again.

'_It's okay Lorr. We're perfectly fine!' That's all I want to say. Why can't I though? What's wrong with me? _He thought in frustration.

After a few minutes of staring up at him while he stared at you, Knuckles finally broke the silence again.

"L-Lorr, please don't cry. Y-you were right, I AM bad around girls and especially if they cry. Please stop..." he stuttered.

You wiped your eyes and stood up slowly.

"We're perfectly fine," he assured you in a more confident voice, "this happens all the time."

You forced a smile at his attempt of reassurance, but couldn't help wondering how good of a guardian he is if the Master Emerald shattered regularly..

He returned the smile, but then rolled his eyes and took on a slightly more annoyed look. "But I'd better go and search for those pieces now..." he sighed.

"May I help?" you asked sweetly after recovering from the fall. You felt bad that he had to collect all the pieces by himself.

"I don't need your help, but if you want to trail along, fine. Just... don't slow me down," he smiled arrogantly.

You weren't sure if the comment was genuine arrogance or if he was just egging you on to take your mind off the fall. Either way, it got you a little hot under the collar. "Slow... you... down..!" you growled, trying to refrain from hurting him since he'd been so nice a few minutes ago. "BE GRATEFULL I'M OFFERING TO HELP!" you shout.

"You coming or not?" he asked, walking away.

You followed him, more to beat the crap out of him than to help, but you followed nonetheless. He glided off Angel Island before you could strike him though. As you two glided through the air, you noticed that his eyes were closed.

"Umm, how are you gonna see the Master Emerald shards if your eyes are closed?" you chuckled.

"I can sense them, can't you?" he asked, opening his eyes and looking at you from the corner of his eye.

"Well, I've never tried really..." you said slowly.

You closed your eyes and tried to sense the presence of the shards. You focused really hard and you actually could feel it. You were new to this whole sensing thing and the signal felt faint, but it was there.

"There's a shard... over there..." you said quietly.

"I know. Come on, let's go get it!" he grinned. You grinned back and you both soon landed in a city in front of a big building. You read the sign on the building.

"Station Square Station," you read aloud.


	7. Chapter 7

After reading the sign, you looked around. Station Square appeared to be a happy, bustling city near the water. Everyone looked so happy there that it gave you a pleasant feeling just being in the city. You took a few steps away from the sign and in towards the street, making sure there were no incoming vehicles. Suddenly, you hear something. It certainly didn't sound like a vehicle, but it did sound as though it was moving fast and, before you had time to react. . . BAM! You landed on the ground.

_What the hell was that?_

The streaking blue thing that knocked you over suddenly stopped and headed back toward you by the time you hit the ground. It stopped in front of you. You looked up at it only to find out that it was a blue hedgehog. He looked to be your age and was quite cute too. You recognized him from somewhere too, but you couldn't figure out where.

"Sorry," he said with a tone of embarrassment as he held out his hand, "I'm just in a bit of a hurry".

You were so amazed by his speed and stunned from being knocked over that it took you a second to realize that he was talking to you. You gave your head a quick shake to bring you back to reality and then gladly take his hand so he could help you up. You glanced at Knuckles who remained silent and noticed that he was glaring at the blue hedgehog. You wondered why; he seemed really nice.

"It's okay," you said, grinning at him slightly, "but what's the rush?"

Before he could answer, you heard a girl yell from behind you.

"SONIC? Oh there you are! Why did you run away like tha- who is _she_?" the girl growled angrily as she glared at you.

_Sonic? Now I know I've heard of him before,_ you thought to yourself.

"A-Amy!" he winced. The poor boy you presumed to be Sonic had a 'please kill me now' expression on his face and instantly let go of your hand when the pink one addressed him. He tried to explain to her that you were just some girl that he knocked over. You felt bad for Sonic; that girl seemed like a nut bar.

"I don't believe you for a second, Sonic the Hedgehog! I thought you were better than that! Cheating on me? And right in front of me too!"

She did a dramatic pose and begun crying. You were annoyed by this girl, and you were pretty sure Knuckles was too because he growled with a scowl on his face.

"Look, Amy," you began, trying to sound nice, but you really couldn't stand her already and you just met her, "Sonic here really DID just run me over! No lie! Knuckles can vouch for that too, right Knuckles?"

He nodded.

"See Amy? I _was_ telling the truth!" You heard him mutter something about not being able to cheat on her anyways because they weren't going out.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized, "but in that case . . . SONIC! Why weren't you more careful?"

You could tell that she was never going to shut up so you decided to ignore them both and began walking towards the aura you felt from the Master Emerald piece nearby.

"Ya coming, Knuckles?" you ask him while still walking. "Yeah, yeah," he grumbled as he catches up to you.

"Who were they?" you asked when you two were out of earshot of the hedgehogs.

"Huh? Oh, that's just Sonic and Amy. They're okay. Amy just follows him around a lot. She's kinda stalks him and she's determined to marry him . . . What a hassle." Knuckles replied, looking back towards Sonic and Amy.

"She's. . . insane. I feel really bad for poor Sonic; he seems too sweet to have such a 'problem'", you say, bluntly.

Knuckles frowned a bit at this comment, but never said a word. You wondered why, but changed the subject in order to relieve the tension of the conversation.

"So . . . is there anything fun to do in this town?" you asked.

"Fun? _You_ can have fun if you want, but _I'm_ going to find the pieces of the Master Emerald", Knuckles replied with a huff.

_Man, this guy's a pain. Maybe I should just go off and do something fun without him if he's going to be like that_, you thought to yourself. You were about to say just so when something inside you stopped you. Instead, you said quietly, "alright. We'll do it your way . . ."

He grinned a bit at this comment and you grinned back.

_Maybe he DOES want me to come with him_

Your smile broadened at the thought as you walked towards the sensation of the first Master Emerald shard.


	8. Chapter 8

"I can feel it . . . It's so close now . . . " you said, walking by a high-tech-looking building.

As you walked passed it, the feeling faded.

"I think it's in there," you said to Knuckles, pointing to the building.

"Twinkle Park? Again? Aww man. . ." he groaned. You ignored him and read a sign next to the building.

"Cute couples get in free . . ." you read aloud.

You looked at Knuckles with a devious smile. He began blushing a bit and shook his head.

"Uh uh! No way!" he said, "that place is flashy and annoying. If you go with me, you'll slow me down and I'm NOT staying in there any longer than I gotta. Besides, we aren't a couple!"

"We're a couple of echidnas, aren't we?" You smirked. Knuckles' expression didn't change. "Aww, come on. It'll be fun! And it doesn't matter if we're really a couple, as long as we _look _like one! We just gotta be cute and together, right?" you said, trying to convince Knuckles to go in with you.

". . . and how do you expect us to look 'cute'?" Knuckles asked bitterly. You were apparently winning him over with this plan.

"Simple: we just have to act like we think the world of each other, even though we obviously don't, Mr. Grumpy-towards-everything-Lorraine-says," you replied in playful tone.

"Y-you mean like . . . h-hold hands and such?" Knuckles stuttered, blushing deeply.

"Uh . . . well yeah. I-I guess . . . "you replied, slightly flushed in the face.

The thought of pretending to go out with Knuckles gave you a weird feeling in your stomach, but it was a good weird feeling . . . sort of. It made you a bit nervous, but the good kind of nervous. At the same time, however, it made you a bit uncomfortable knowing that you'd be pretending to go out with someone who was not only kind of irritating, but didn't want you there to begin with. But in the end, it didn't matter how you felt. What mattered was getting the shards of the sacred Master Emerald back. It may not be you jewel, but it was still important. Dutifully, you grabbed his hand and walked towards the entrance. His hand was a little sweaty and shaking a bit as you whispered to him: "don't worry. It'll be fine. Just follow my lead".

The two of you approached the entrance when a tall human woman wearing an employee uniform asked if you had passes.

"No, we're just a cute couple who want in!" you said and then quickly pulled Knuckles' hand you were holding around your waist. He turned redder.

"It's free, right?" you said in an innocent voice and rested your head on Knuckles shoulder. He felt warm . . . too warm. It was as if he had an insanely high fever and you were a bit worried that he might pass out at any moment.

_Man, he _is_ bad with girls_.

"Aww, you ARE a pretty cute couple! Well, okay, go on in!" she said, smiling and handing you a couples' pass.

Knuckles' hand slid away from your waist slowly and limply as he slid his palm back into your hand. You could feel that he was shaking now. The two of you walked into Twinkle Park. As soon as the two of you were out of the sight of the employee, you let go of Knuckles' hand and looked at him.

"Haha! Wow! Your face is as red as the rest of you!" you chuckled.

It was true; he _was_ pretty red and shaky.

"W-well," he stuttered, frowning a bit, "I never did anything like that before!"

You continued chuckling. "Yeah, I can tell! You're acting like a little boy on his first date!"

His eyes opened really wide at this comment and looked even more nervous.

"Why are you so nervous? I understand that you're probably a bit uncomfortable with me since we just met yesterday and all, but still. . ." you asked him as you approached the bumper cars.

"Because . . . I . . . You . . .I'M NOT NERVOUS!" he stuttered.

You giggled at him, shaking your head a bit dismissively. You closed your eyes to see if you could pick up the signal of the shard. Suddenly, you felt the sensation of a shard really sharply.

"Oh wow . . . it's really close. . ." you said quietly.

"I know," he said seriously. "It's in the bumper car area".

He became calmer and he wasn't blushing anymore. You knew he was very serious about restoring the Master Emerald. You appreciated how seriously he took his duty. The two of you walked into the bumper car area and were almost run over by a couple of kids in the cars.

"Watch it!" Knuckles yelled to you as he put his arm in front of you, stopping you from moving forward and protecting you from the rude kids in bumper cars.

"Whew," you sighed, "thanks, Knuckles."

"It's not safe to walk out here . . ." he said.

"I know. Hmm . . . maybe we should ride around in cars too . . ." you pondered aloud.

He nodded.

"Oh? You mean you AGREE with me?" you gasped a tad snidely.

"Hmph!" he grunted.

"Well, we'd need wait for a car because they're all in use," you said, looking around.

"I've got a better idea," he grinned and dashed towards a bunch of kids in bumper cars.

"Oh! Don't take them from a bunch of innocent kids!" you yelled, running after him. You wouldn't have minded if he were taking them from those two who almost ran you over a moment ago, however. These were different kids though, so you felt a little bad about it.

"Nag, nag nag!" he yelled back in an agitated tone while stopping a couple of cars with his hands.

"Okay kids, beat it!" he growled to the children.

They left promptly.

" . . . You're horrible . . ." you frowned at him.

He ignored you and hopped into the green car.

"You comin' or what?" he asked.

You gave him a bit of a glare and hopped into the blue car silently and the two of you headed off towards the shard.

The two of you drove down the track, occasionally bumping into kids and each other. You looked over at Knuckles and noticed that he was smiling.

"Having fun?" you asked pleasantly.

He looked to you and immediately stopped smiling.

"No," he replied bluntly.

You looked away from him but in about two minutes, you noticed out of the corner of your eye that he was grinning again.

_What a liar._

Suddenly, you saw something glitter in the distance. As you approached it, the sensation of the presence of a shard was as strong as ever.

"Over there!" you yelled.

He saw it though, and the two of you stopped your cars right next to the glittering shard. You picked it up and felt the warm glow in your hands. You were about to hand it to Knuckles when you noticed he wasn't beside you anymore.

"Hey, there's another one over here too!" he exclaimed after walking a little ways from you. You went over to him and handed him the shard.

"Ok, that's all there are around here, now let's get out of here. The lights are giving me a headache," he complained.

You just laughed at him as the two of you left Twinkle Park.

"Which way now?" you asked as the two of you exited the premises.

"Well, there are a few North and a few West. Those are the closest ones," he replied pointing in those directions.

"Well, which way do _you_ want to go?" you asked.

"Let's go. . . . West, "he answered.

"Sure, why not?" you smiled as the two of you walked towards Station Square Station. "We get to take the train, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," he answered.

"Sounds fun!" you said joyfully and darted up the stairs of Station Square Station. "C'mon!"

He grunted and grinned as he jogged up the stairs after you.

_Wow, it's been a while since we argued! Maybe this won't be so bad after all. . ._ you thought to yourself with a smile.


	9. Chapter 9

From the moment you entered the train, you could feel the curious stares of the humans around you. The adults whispered quietly amongst themselves, but you did hear one young boy say loudly to his mother: "Mommy! Who's that with Knuckles?" whilst tugging on her shirt. She couldn't supply an answer since pretty much nobody knew who you were around here. She just continued to clutch her baby in her arms and trying to hush her older, louder child.

You felt Knuckles' glance upon you too, suddenly and turned to him to see why.

"Uh, ignore them, Lorraine," he said rolling his eyes a bit, "they know Sonic, Amy and me and a bunch of other guys around here, but since you're kinda new, you'll probably be gettin' a few stares for a bit."

You knew it was probably true, but the stares still made you a bit uncomfortable. You decided to take matters into your own hands.

"Well then" you said with a smirk, "I'll just have to introduce myself".

"Lorr, don't make a scene . . ." Knuckles said with a sigh as you rose from your seat. You weren't really listening to him, though, and went over to the little boy.

"Hello there," you said as pleasantly as you could muster, "my name's Lorraine. What's you-" you were cut off by a sharp yank at your lilac hair that almost brought tears to your eyes.

You turned your gaze to the woman's other child, who was giggling as he continued yanking your hair out by the roots. Fighting the urge to scream and swear, you simply froze and forced smile. You muttered "what lovely children" through your teeth as the embarrassed mother apologized frantically and tried to get her baby to release his grasp. Sadly, her attempts were futile. Knuckles got up to try to help, but the baby let go by the time he got over. You said nothing as you clutched your aching head with that same frozen expression etched on your face and sat back in your seat.

"I TOLD you not to make a scene . . ." Knuckles said, trying not to laugh.

"Oh, shut it, Knuckles," you mutter through your teeth. He was about to argue back, but when you saw his mouth open, you said harshly through your teeth: "shut it before I shut it FOR you!"

Combined with a glare, it was enough to convince Knuckles to drop it. The two of you sat in silence until your headache began subsiding. Once it did, you tried focusing your thoughts more on the location of the remaining Master Emerald shards than your sudden and temporary intolerance to children. You noticed that the presence of one shard seemed incredibly close and mentioned it to knuckles.

"Well, that's because we're almost to the next station. It's probably not far from it," he stated.

You realized he was right when you looked out the window and noticed that you could see a mountainous region ahead. It had a mysterious and ancient sort of atmosphere. You kind of liked it, actually; it was quite pretty view. The nice sunset made up for the fact that the skies were quickly becoming overcast. Finally, the train grinded to a halt as you arrived at the station.

"Okay then. I wonder how far from the station it is . . ." you wondered aloud.

"It feels as though it's right outside. Come on. Let's go."

You nodded and followed him.

The two of you exited the train, ready to hunt for hours for a little green shard when you saw a small, little male fox carrying the very thing you hunted for.

"TAILS!" Knuckles barked, "_why _do you have an Emerald shard?"

"Uh . . . I-I just figured you were looking for them!" the boy said in a startled tone. "I saw it outside my house when I was working and . . . well I was on my way to find _you_ to give you it!"

"Oh . . ." Knuckles said simply.

You assumed he was a bit embarrassed for a dumb move like that. You gave a small giggle and Tails set his eyes to you.

"Who's she, Knuckles?"

"Uh, that's Lorraine. She's . . . tagging along," Knuckles replied.

"Well, nice to meet you, Lorraine!" he said, handing Knuckles the shard and extending his hand towards you."I'm Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails, so you can too!"

"Well, if I can call you Tails, then please call me Lorr," you grinned, shaking his hand. "Now why couldn't _you_ be that friendly, Knuckles?" you joked.

Knuckles gave you a slightly embarrassed, annoyed look. Tails gave a short chuckle and then said: "Hey, why don't you guys come over to my house, huh? It's almost supper, so you can stay."

"No thanks Tails, we've got work to do" Knuckles declined quickly.

Then you heard his stomach growl. It hit you then that neither of you have eaten in quite a while. Tails chuckled again.

"Well, you say 'no', but your stomach is saying 'yes please!'"

Knuckles gave another agitated look.

"Well, ignore him, Tails. We'd be pleased to stay for dinner if it isn't too much trouble," you say politely.

"No trouble at all, Lorr," he grinned. The two of you walked off towards his house with Knuckles tailing grumpily behind.

It was about half an hour later that the three of you sat down for the meal. Tails seemed reasonably competent in the kitchen considering his age, and you gladly ate it. About halfway through your third bite, however, you heard the sound of rain hitting the roof.

"Looks like we're not hunting for anything else tonight, huh, Knuckles?" you said a bit thoughtfully, looking out the window.

"You mightn't, but I will" he replied bluntly.

"Oh, no you're not! Catch a cold and you'll know it!" you growl.

"Don't tell me what to do!" he yelled back.

"I wouldn't _have _to if you used your head!"

"Well, if you-"

"Guys, calm down!" Tails interrupted worriedly.

The two of you were quiet at once.

"Look," Tails continued, "if there's shards around here, you can find them in the morning, when it stops raining, alright? You can both stay here for tonight," he gave a weak grin and look to Knuckles.

Knuckles gave a defiant look at Tails and then glared at you for giving Tails the idea of staying in.

"Fine," he grunted after a long pause.

Tails gave a warmer grin to the two of you just before lightning crashed somewhere in the distance. It caused him to jump a bit.

"I have only one spare room, however, so Knuckles is sleeping on the couch".

"Great," sighed Knuckles sarcastically. You gave a short chuckle.

Once dinner ended, you thanked Tails for the meal and headed upstairs to see where you'd be sleeping. The room wasn't big, but it was accommodating enough. You did notice that there were no sheets on the bed however. As if he were reading your thoughts, you heard Knuckles walk up the stairs and come into the room. He was holding linen.

"Tails told me to give you some blankets," he said simply. You thanked him and took the bedding. Suddenly, an earth-rattling crash of thunder struck and made Knuckles jump a bit. You, however, just proceeded to make your bed.

"Doesn't that bother you?" Knuckles asked.

"Doesn't what bother me?"

"That lightning!

You chuckled. "Have you already forgotten?" You looked up from your bed and towards Knuckles. You assumed by the confused look on his face that he had indeed forgotten that you were from Thunder Island. You finished making your bed and sat down on the edge of it closest to the window.

"Knuckles, I used to be afraid of the sound of thunder, back when I was really little. The energy from the Master Amethyst usually brought upon many thunderstorms. I eventually got used to the sound." You gave a sigh and looked out through the window. "I love the sound of it now, but it does break my heart a bit since it makes me a little homesick."

Knuckles sat down beside you and joined you in gazing through the window. "Even if you did get that Master Amethyst and bring it to your island, you can't bring your village back."

You knew this was true, but hearing him say the words out loud cut into your heart a bit.

"I never went through anything like that before, but I do kinda know how you feel. I'm the last of my clan too after all," he said, still staring out the window.

You turned and smiled at him. It was nice to know he understood a bit of how you felt. He did not, however, understand what it's like to watch the ones you love die more or less in front of you. But you assumed that there wasn't anyone you'd ever know who understood that feeling.

Another crash of lightning brought him back to his senses and he noticed that you were staring at him.

"Uh, I should go to bed. I'll see you in the morning," he said hurriedly whilst getting a little flushed. You bade him goodnight as he walked downstairs.

Later that night, as you were crawling into your nice, warm bed, you looked out at the storm once more. You waited patiently for chain lightning to streak across the sky and give you a good show before bed. When the lighting finally did strike, it wasn't the chain lightning that caught your eye; the burst of light allowed you to see the silhouette of something moving, though, you thought, it probably wasn't something, but someone. You leaned closer to the window to see if you could make out who it was. When you realized you couldn't, curiosity got the best of you and you quickly got dressed again and opened the window.

_It could be dangerous to go after someone in the middle of the night, but who would be on this nice boy's property? They may break in! Who knows? _you thought as an excuse more to yourself than anyone else who would question your actions.

You swung your leg over the window sill and hopped down. You made your way off the roof, looking for whoever was trespassing. Thanks to the rain, you were already soaked by the time you reached the ground. You searched for a while until something caught your eye on the ledge below. It wasn't anything alive, but you thought you'd investigate anyway. You slid down a ways and saw something shimmering. As you were about to pick it up, you realized what it was: a blue Chaos Emerald. You reached your hand down towards it when suddenly, someone else's hand snatched it first.

"I'll take that" said the calm voice.

You looked up to see who it was and were a quite surprised by what you saw.


	10. Chapter 10

Your jaw dropped a bit as you gazed up at the intruder. 

"Sonic . . .?" you gasped in a voice just barely louder than a whisper. Another flash of lightning from behind you revealed your mistake. The intruder did look very similar to Sonic and was a hedgehog, but he was black with red stripes. You saw his eyes glow with determination and were temporarily paralyzed by his stare. You could tell he really wanted this Chaos Emerald. He snatched it out from under your hand while you were still a bit dazzled and had already jumped back up to Tails' yard with his prize by the time you finally got back to reality.

"HEY" you shout loudly, following him, "what are you doing?"

The hedgehog didn't look at you and just shook his head at your question. "I don't need to tell you my intentions with this Chaos Emerald".

"Well, this is Tails' property, making this theft." The hedgehog ignored you and continued making his way off of Tails' land.

"GET BACK HERE, THIEF!" you scream louder than ever.

He gave you a cold glare, causing you to flinch momentarily. "Be quiet," said in a harsh but quiet voice, "or you will raise more of a fuss than is necessary".

"I'll raise all the fuss I want, vagabond! Give it back to its owner and then go home!" you growled defiantly. Your voice echoed through the rain as your eyes stayed focused on the intruder. Your vision shifted, however, when you noticed the lights go on in Tails house. Someone must've heard you. Someone did indeed hear you; Knuckles awoke from his light sleep at the sound of your argument and was peering through the window on the door. The intruder glared at the house as if he could tell someone was watching. Another lightning bolt crashed nearby as you watched the intruder shift his glare over back towards you.

The intruder lifted the blue Chaos Emerald upward. "Chaos . . ." he began. You didn't know what he was planning, but knew the power of a Chaos Emerald. You acted purely on instinct and dashed towards him. As the word 'control' came across his lips, you swiftly grabbed his left arm. Your grapple cut him off a bit, obviously messing up his train of thought. A bright light surrounded the Emerald and then surrounded both of you. You turned to the house and saw Knuckles emerge from the front door. He disappeared from view though, as well as the house and the land. Your surroundings blurred together, as the light grew stronger. All that remained in view was the intruder. You looked at him, scared and unsure of what was going on. Suddenly, you felt as if you were being pulled from your stomach as your insides contracted and the wind was knocked out of you. Everything was happening so fast, you had no idea what was going on. Finally . . . you disappeared from Tails' property.

Meanwhile, Knuckles stood on Tails' doorstep, dumbfounded.

"Knuckles . . . why did you turn on the lights?" Tails asked, rubbing his eyes. Since Knuckles was sleeping on the couch, he heard the argument outside, but Tails had not. Clearly though, turning on the lights downstairs did wake him.

"It's . . . Lorr . She was outside with Shadow," Knuckles responded, not quite sure what happened himself.

"What?" Tails gasped, suddenly alert. "Why was Shadow here?"

"I . . . I don't know. He had a Chaos Emerald. I think Lorr may have been trying to stop him or something, since she was yelling, but . . . I dunno what actually happened."

Tails gave a thoughtful look and replied "hmmm . . . maybe there was a Chaos Emerald around here . . . somewhere. . ." 

"She got in the way of Shadow when he's on a hunt for Chaos Emeralds?" Knuckles gasped as a sharp pain of panic coursed through his body. Both Tails and Knuckles knew how violent Shadow could be if something or someone got in the way of his objective. Knuckles wasn't sure why he cared so much, but he felt sick when you realized the danger you was in. Perhaps it was guilt because he let you tag along and unintentionally got you dragged into this, or perhaps it was general concern. Whatever it was, he felt like his stomach was in his throat.

"Knuckles . . . are you listening to me at all?" Tails asked. He'd been talking for the past few minutes, since Knuckles asked his last question, but Knuckles was too wrapped up in his own thoughts to notice.

"What?" he asked, dumbly. 

"Let's go inside, Knuckles and we'll work this out," Tails said with a forced smile. Knuckles nodded and followed him inside.


	11. Chapter 11

"What's going on?" you wonder in panic. You could still the thief's arm in your hand, but touch seemed to be the only sense that was working properly at this point. Everything else seemed as distorted as your vision. Your stomach felt like it was in your throat and you really had no idea what to do.

As gut wrenching as the ride was though, it was over as quickly as it started and you felt your feet hit solid ground once more. Your legs were as shaky as the rest of your body, however, and your knees soon buckled under your own weight as you collapsed to the ground. You heard an agitated grunt from the thief as you dragged him down with you. 

"You idiot!" he scolded, ripping his arm from your grasp, "do you realize that interrupting my 'Chaos Control' could've transported us anywhere? Even to another dimension? Idiot . . ." He was talking, but you weren't really listening; your nausea was clouding your mind. You thought that surely you would throw up, but you somehow managed to keep your supper down. You just stayed there, motionless on your hands and knees, hoping the world would stop spinning soon.

Once you could more or less think straight, you looked around. The two of you obviously were transported quite a distance because it wasn't raining anymore. In fact, it wasn't even cloudy. The sky was clear as day and the moon was shining through the nearby trees. 

"Where are we exactly?" you ask, looking up at the sky. 

"I don't know," replied the thief bitterly, "but I'm leaving".

He began striding away when you stammered: "w-wait . . . you can't just LEAVE me here in the middle of nowhere!" 

"Watch me", he scoffed and glared at you. This time though, instead of paralyzing you, they intrigued you. It was a little strange, but they drew you in and made you think that he looked like a very angry vagabond. There was another emotion in his eyes too that seemed familiar, but you couldn't quite put your finger on it at the time. You gave your head a quick shake to bring you back to the situation at hand. As your grasp on the present returned, you returned his glare and said nothing.

"Go away . . . or I'll make you regret it," he said in a quiet and serious tone. 

"Oh trust me, you'll be the one regretting it if don't get me back right _now_!" you yelled, taking a step towards him to assert your aggressiveness. It didn't seem to faze him too much though; he just continued glaring at you. When his eyes began drawing you in again, you scoffed with displeasure crossed your arms and looked away from him to avoid spacing out entirely again. "Can we just go now? Please?" You asked in an agitated tone, avoiding eye contact.

He said nothing but began walking away. You growl in agitation and catch up to him. 

"My name's Lorraine Amethyst. So what's your name?" you asked grudgingly. Since the hedgehog was not responding to your assertiveness or aggressiveness, you hoped that being a bit friendly may convince him to help you out.

He looked over at you momentarily. He then looked away without saying a word.

"Aww, come on. I gave you my name, so it's only proper for you to tell me yours."

He drew a sigh. "Shadow. Now, go away." Clearly you were agitating him. He picked up his pace a bit and walked ahead of you.

"Oi. . . this is going to be ANOTHER long night . . ." you mutter as you go to catch up to him once more.


	12. Chapter 12

Knuckles stared confusedly at the coffee table and Tails took out some paper and began sprawling out the chain of events that took place, probability formulas, complicated graphs and possible solutions. Tails knew what he was doing, but even if Knuckles wasn't already rather dazed from the evening's events, Tails' theories and probabilities would have done it by themselves; they weren't simple equations to say the least.

"Huh? Tails, what the heck does X, Y, Z and . . .what's that symbol thing?" Knuckles asked with a frustrated and puzzled expression whilst pointing to a symbol Tails wrote out.

"It's delta", Tails replied without looking up from the page.

"Whatever. What do _they_ have _anything_ to do with finding Lorr and Shadow?"

"It's math, Knuckles. Chaos Control it a warp trough time and space, right?"

"Yeah"

"Well, if we take into account that he can move throughout space and calculate time as the fourth dimension then if we throw in a few formulas . . ."

"Tails . . . this is total gibberish to me" Knuckles sighed and shook his head.

"Hmm . . ." Tails said, putting his pencil down and leaning back in his chair "well, we could try to just look for her . . . but with no leads whatsoever, they could be anywhere."

"Well, I'm sure they wouldn't be TOO far. Seriously, Shadow never warps TOO far . . ."

Tails picked up his pencil again looked at the paper thoughtfully and began writing again. "You do realize, Knuckles that even if they were in a two mile radius, we'd have to look through several miles of ruins, jungle and . . . oh, I just think that jumping in blind is a bad idea". He shook his head, "we need to do something now before they move, but . . . where would they go?"

You continued following Shadow through what started to be nearby trees but soon became a forest after a couple of yards. It was hard to keep up with him; the moonlight was scarce once you entered the woods and Shadow blended in with the darkness far too well for your own comfort. Your night vision was pretty good, but Shadow was but a faint image up ahead. If it weren't for the fact that he was moving, you were sure you would have lost him by now. Unfortunately, the small twigs and the occasional larger twigs that didn't move were much harder to notice and you stumbled through the woods, got a few twigs caught in your sandals and almost tripped over a stump more than once. Luckily, you've yet to snag your hair or your clothes yet; the constant groping motion you made with your arms prevented injury to the majority of your upper body.

"Hmm? What's this?" Shadow asked in a low, questioning voice. He stopped suddenly and you would have walked into him if it weren't for a bit of green light being emitted near his feet that allowed you to see him for the first time in forty minutes. As he bent down to pick it up and you recognized the light source instantly: a Master Emerald shard.

_Why couldn't I sense it? _You asked yourself. You concluded that you can only sense gems when you actually focus on sensing them. _That would explain why I couldn't sense the Chaos Emerald earlier and why I couldn't sense the Master Emerald shards this morning until Knuckles asked me if I could. _

"This looks familiar" . . . Shadow said – more to himself than you – whilst turning the shard over on his hand. You saw his eyes widen as memories flooded back to him. Finally, he answered his own conundrum by saying "ah, yes. Rouge the Bat was looking for these a while back. Parts of that large Emerald Knuckles usually has. Well, I have no use for it". And with that, he tossed it over his shoulder. You caught the glowing shard and slipped it into your belt.

"What. Are you collecting them too?" Shadow asked, leering at where you placed the shard.

"Umm . . . sort of. . ." you answered awkwardly.

"Hmph. Fine. I could care less what you do with them."

"I wouldn't care if you cared or not, really. I'm not collecting them for myself." Shadow paid little attention to your last comment and continued moving.

_I guess he could care less that I don't care that he doesn't care . . .ugh. I'm severely close to confusing myself here . . ._ you thought as you continued following the black hedgehog through the woods. Suddenly, the woods ended and the two of you emerged at the edge of a reasonably sized city.

"Westopolis huh?" Shadow murmured. "So that's where we are . . ."


	13. Chapter 13

Shadow's statement about being "in" Westopolis wasn't entirely accurate; it was a twenty minute walk to actually get _in_ the city. You squinted at your bright surroundings as the powerful street lamps and signs burned your eyes after such a long time in nearly complete darkness. You blinked hard a few dozen times as you looked down at the ground to shade your eyes slightly and focused on Shadow's feet so you could continue tailing him. As you followed him and your eyes adjusted, something important occurred to you:

_What now?_

You were so tired that you knew it was only a matter of time before you totally crashed, but you were still pretty lost. You knew that you were in Westopolis, but that meant nothing to you really, since you weren't from around here anyway.

_I need to follow Shadow for now. The chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald are all connected, so there's no doubt in my mind that I'll find Knuckles again if I stay with him. Besides, I wanna know what he's up to with the Chaos Emeralds. That much power can be a dangerous thing . . . for everyone around whoever has it._

Suddenly, things took an unfortunate turn.

"Well, there. You're back to civilization. I did you a favour, now leave me be," Shadow uttered apathetically.

That's when reality beat you over the face with the fact that Shadow didn't want to be followed. You had to think quickly for a solution to your problems.

"Well then, I guess I need to do _you_ a favour then right? To make it even?" you smiled innocently.

"No, I don't care. I'm busy. Now that I know where I am, I'm leaving. I suggest you do the same," Shadow frowned solemnly.

_This was going from bad to worse today, isn't it?_ you thought. _Well, after that hour-long trek to get into a city, I'm not about to give up now._ You took a deep stretch and cracked your shoulders.

"I'm too tired to leave now," you yawned. "Besides, it's like three in the morning. I need some hardcore sleep".

"There's a hotel up that street," Shadow informed you whilst pointing in the direction of the street and walking away.

"Great idea!" you chimed, catching up to the black hedgehog. "We should stay the night there!"

He stopped. ". . .we?"

"Yes 'we'. You literally got me out of the woods, so the least I can do is pay for a hotel room for you."

Shadow looked at you thoughtfully for a moment. Then he gave you the leave-me-the-hell-alone-you-clingy-bitch look before walking away from you once more.

_That's me_, you thought sarcastically, _always making friends._

"Oh, come ON! You can't possibly have something to do at three in the morning," you sighed exasperatingly as you caught up to him again.

He stopped walking again, but wasn't facing you. Instead, he just faced the direction he was formerly walking in. "I'm busy searching," he replied simply. You thought for a moment.

_Well, obviously he's looking for Chaos Emeralds . . .hmm . . ._

Suddenly, it came to you. You smiled at him slyly as the wheels began turning in your head. You stood quietly for a moment and focused on your surroundings. Soon after, your search paid off.

"Oh, you mean the Chaos Emeralds? Like the one not too far from here in that direction?" you asked casually with a mildly smug look on your face as you gestured towards the sensation of a nearby Chaos emerald.

"How did you . . ." Shadow began after turning around quickly to face you again. For once, he seemed interested in what you had to say.

"I can sense those too, you know. I have to focus, but I can do it just the same as Knuckles," you announced to him, crossing your arms in triumph. You knew you had him hooked now. All that was left was to reel him in.

He continued looking at you in silence as if waiting for you to speak again, so you did.

"Well, something tells me that sticking with you is the only way to get back to my new friends, so I'll make you a deal, alright?"

Only silence came from the black hedgehog . . . as usual.

"If you let me tag along, I'll point you in the direction of the Chaos Emeralds. Sound good?" More silence.

Finally, he drew long, contemplating sigh. "The last time I agreed to something like this was a long time ago . . . and she almost stole them before I could use them." He glared at you suspiciously and for a moment and you were taken aback.

"What? Oh, no no _no_! I have no interest in _those_! I'm only looking for Master Emerald shards and you said you don't need them anyway!" you blurt out frantically. There was no need to be labeled a thief if you weren't one. Besides, you had to gain his trust if you were going to leech off him.

Finally, Shadow responded. To your surprise, it wasn't accompanied by a sigh, a frown or even a glare. Instead, he just shook his head and gave a quick chuckle while a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Alright, I suppose I could use you around . . . for now."

_Sweet! I am _in,_ man!_

You were elated at the thought that you finally had a chance at locating Knuckles and Tails again. You tried not to show your excitement too much though and simply smiled contently at Shadow.

"Good. In that case, I'm beat. Let's go check in to that hotel you were talking about," you yawned.

"Fine, fine," he muttered and walked towards the hotel. You followed him silently with your grin growing broader by the minute.


	14. Chapter 14

The two of you booked a hotel room with two lovely double beds, a small socializing area with a T.V. and couch and a more than accommodating bathroom. The lady at the desk found it rather strange that neither of you had any form of luggage though, but gave you the key without asking any questions. When you both finally got up to the room, Shadow immediately sat on the couch. You looked at him for a bit, and noticed that now that there were lights on, you recognized him more and more.

"Do I . . . know you from somewhere, Shadow?" whilst sitting down on one of the beds in the bachelor pad inspired room.

He glanced at you for a moment and replied: "Well, just because I've never met you before doesn't mean you never heard of me. After all, this city is still a mess because of events that revolved between Black Doom, chaos emeralds and yours truly". His vision passed from you to a window with the view of a partially rebuilt building. You thought for a moment and then it hit you.

"I . . . I get it now!" you exclaimed while jolting up, "You're the one that saved the planet! I remember reading several newspapers with your name as the headline! I _knew_ I recognized your face! And, oh wow. I . . . I met _the_ Sonic the Hedgehog and his partner Tails! And even Knuckles is well-known I think. Why didn't I notice this before? Ugh, I'm so stupid! These past few days have been like walking through Hollywood, now that I really think about it!" You gave an aggravated grumble at your own ignorance and continued putting up a fuss for the next several minutes. Shadow, on the other hand, remained silent and turned on the television. He didn't look like he cared about what you had to say. In fact, he looked like he was hardly listening at all.

"I thought you wanted sleep. Why are you jabbering on about nothing?" He finally muttered. You were silenced instantly and your expression sobered as you once again came to the conclusion that Shadow was about as sociable as a moth ball. You laid back with your arms crossed behind your head as you groaned agitatedly at his last comment. You could feel a bitter reply on the tip of your tongue, but it was not words that escaped your lips; it was a yawn.

"Alright, alright. You win," you sighed as you kicked off your sandals and crawled into the bed.

"I always do," he said quietly without looking away from the television.

You chuckled slightly under your breath and said: "Well, you should rest up too you know." He didn't respond.

"So you're just going to watch TV all night?"

Still no response.

"Oh, come on. It's a little creepy if you just stay up watching TV all night in silence like that."

"Creepy?" he finally responded. "I'm watching the _television,_ not you sleeping. Now be quiet, go to sleep and let me watch the news".

You silently agreed that a strange hedgehog – even if he was famous – that you were suddenly sharing living quarters with watching you sleep was significantly creepier than a sleep-deprived, anti-social guy who liked to boss you around.

_I can't tell if he's the mysterious bad boy type, a total creep or just a jerk,_ you thought to yourself with a shiver as you slowly began to doze off.

Meanwhile at Tails' workshop, Knuckles was unintentionally damaging Tails' property.

"All we know is that Shadow's up to something! He's not on our side!" Knuckles exclaimed, slamming his fist down on Tails' coffee table and launching the remote into the air with such force that it actually turned on the television when it landed back on table. Tails gulped at the sound of his poor coffee table creaking from the blow.

"Let's just think for a sec, Knuckles. I mean, maybe math isn't the way to do it, but I'm sure Shadow has a better plan than to just be up to no good, right?"

"Yeah . . . I guess . . ."

"Well then, let's think. What has he done in the past?"

Knuckles sat thoughtfully for a moment before responding. "Well, we first met him when he was with Eggman and Rouge and they tried to collect the Chaos Emeralds to destroy the planet."

"That's right!" Tails smiled, "and not long ago, he collected all the Chaos Emeralds to save the world too, remember? He destroyed the aliens. Plus, he was probably outside getting a Chaos Emerald tonight too, right?"

"Come to think of it," Knuckles thought out loud, "He's usually just out collecting Chaos Emeralds, isn't he?"

"Collecting Chaos Emeralds is all anyone ever does around here nowadays," Tails muttered under his breath.

Knuckles ignored him however and continued thinking out loud: "So then, odds are he's looking for _all _the Chaos Emeralds, right?" Tails nodded.

"Alright!" Knuckles exclaimed, slamming his fist onto the coffee table again, this time in excitement instead of rage, "so I just have to get the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald shards and I'll have my Emerald and Lorr back, right?"

"Ah!" Tails yelled as he made a dive for the remote. He caught it with a sigh and pulled a screwdriver from under the couch cushion he was sitting on. "Yeah, sure, Knuckles," he replied whilst tightening up a screw that nearly rattled out of the coffee table. Knuckles gave a nervous chuckle when he noticed the damage he was doing to the table.

"So umm, not to pry or anything Knuckles," Tails said without looking at Knuckles since he was still busy repairing his abused furniture, "but when did you start hanging around Lorr? I mean, I've never heard of her until today and you're actually going to go out of your way to get the Chaos Emeralds to go find her?"

"Uh . . . w-well . . ." Knuckles stammered, not liking the direction the conversation was going. "Wouldn't _you _save her? I mean, she just got kidnapped and everything . . ."

"Well yeah, of course," Tails agreed, putting the screwdriver away and giving his undivided attention to Knuckles. "She's nice and I like her. Of course I'd rescue her, but I'm like Sonic: I would rescue anyone in distress. I can tell you like her too though, or else you wouldn't be so eager to rescue her, that's all."

Knuckles' face grew a bit warm at the comment. Eager to change the subject, he glanced around the room for another topic. He spotted that the television had several pop-up menus, no sound and a minimized picture. Perfect. "Whoa. What's up with your T.V.?"

"I probably hit a bunch of buttons catching it . . ." Tails replied. He hit about half a dozen buttons and the News lady appeared. She was already halfway through her report when the television turned on.

"- - - exhibit tomorrow!" the announcer smiled.

"Knuckles! Look!" Tails exclaimed while pointing to the topic of the report. "It's an exhibit on a Chaos Emerald!"

"You're . . . kidding, right?" He was so stricken by the announcement, Knuckles' expression looked like one from a cartoon. "That's just ridiculously convenient".

"Well, it's strangely timely, but it's all we have to go on, right? We'll go check it out early in the morning, alright?" Knuckles gave a nod and Tails let out a cute little yawn and stretched. "Well, it's _really_ late Knuckles. We should head to bed".

"Yeah . . ."

"Oh! Since Lorr's not here anymore though, you can take the spare bedroom." Knuckles said nothing but simply went upstairs. The bed was slightly unmade since you never bothered to make it before climbing out after Shadow. Knuckles kicked off his shoes and crawled into the spot that you were not two hours ago. As he laid with his arms crossed behind his head and stared up at the ceiling and then out the open window, anxiety filled his chest.

_It's true that I'd probably try at least a little bit to save someone I knew who just got kidnapped if it wasn't completely out of my way, but even though I need to find the Master Emerald shards, this stupid knot in my chest won't go way unless I find Lorr. Do I really feel that guilty for dragging her into all this? This is all so weird for me . . _. Knuckles thought as he drifted off into a light, uneasy sleep as he worried about what Shadow was up to, the fate of Angel Island and his newfound friend.

Downstairs, Tails began shutting off all the lights in the house . . . again. He sat down on the couch and retrieved the remote. He shut off the news lady's broadcast with a tap of a button. Three seconds later in Westopolis, Shadow flicked off the same broadcast.


	15. Chapter 15

You awoke slowly early the next morning to Shadow's damp hand nudging your shoulder softly. Your vision was hazy for a moment and you couldn't quite understand what he was saying in your current state. After about a minute, however, you partially returned to your senses, hungry for more sleep.

"What is it?" you asked softly.

"Well, I figured that, although you would greatly appreciate a few more minutes of sleep that you would appreciate a shower before we left a bit more," he responded.

_How thoughtful. How early, but how thoughtful . . . I guess. _

You rolled to the edge of the bed and sat up, stretching and rubbing your eyes for another good minute as you attempted to shake the sleepiness out of your body. You glanced at the clock. 7:30 it said.

_Wow. So I got like four hours of sleep? How incredibly generous_, you thought to yourself sarcastically.

Your eyes then moved onto Shadow, who was still beside you. He looked a bit damp and you assumed he had already taken a shower earlier.

_Earlier than 7:30? Does this guy sleep?_

You stumbled out of bed and ambled towards the bathroom with an almost zombie-like gait. You locked the door behind you, stripped down and crawled into the shower. The entire process took about three times longer than if you were a bit more conscious, but once the hot water ran through your hair, you slowly started coming back to life. You loved showers, especially at hotels. You loved the unlimited hot water, cleanliness of the shower and great assortment of soaps and shampoos they always provided you with. They all smelled so good you _had _to try them all of course. It was so rejuvenating and wonderful that it pained you to turn off the water, get ready and return to Shadow. It didn't seem so painful, however, when you noticed what he had upon your return.

"Breakfast!" you smile excitedly as you plopped your butt beside Shadow on the couch.

"Yes, but you took so long in that bathroom that it's gone rather cold and I've already finished".

"Oh. Oops. I'm sorry," you chuckle with mild embarrassment and crammed a quarter of a pancake in your mouth. It was indeed pretty cold, but still pretty tasty.

"I really don't even know what took you so long in the bathro - - ". He stopped in mid sentence and sniffed the air.

"What is it?" you ask through the pancake in your mouth when his eyes landed on you. He had an interesting expression on his face; it was a mixture of his usual apathetic, stern look with mild surprise and his pupils were dilated. He blinked a few times and then shook his head as if he was trying to return to his senses. He then muttered "nothing" and proceeded to ignore you by staring out the window.

_Do I smell funny or something? Maybe I shouldn't have played with _all _of the soaps and shampoos. _You thought a little self-consciously. Regardless, you managed to shrug it off and continue your dive into the syrupy goodness that was breakfast.

When you finally stuffed the last bite into your mouth, Shadow turned to you again.

"Alright, Lorraine, listen".

"What now?"

"I want you to focus. Where is the Chaos Emerald the second least farthest away?"

You gave him an incredulous state. "The _second_ closest? Why not the closest? That makes logical - - -"

"I already know where the closest is," he said sternly, cutting you off. "I'll go there while you go and find the second-closest. We can save time this way."

"Oh . . . .alright," you said, giving in to his demands. You closed your eyes and focused hard on the task at hand. You could faintly feel all the little shards of the Master Emerald around. There were so many . . . but you continued searching. The Chaos Emeralds had a different feeling than the shards. They were bigger, stronger and more dispersed. You could sense 5 right now: One a few blocks away, which you assumed Shadow knew about, two a fair distance away, the one Shadow had in his possession and one a few kilometers away. Your eyes shot open as you memorized your target's location.

"Where is it then, Lorraine?" Shadow asked once you opened your eyes.

"It's a few kilometers in that direction" you responded, pointing generally South.

"Alright then. We shall meet back here at ten o'clock. Understand?"

"Yes," you sighed. _He's so bossy._

"Good. Make haste," he said, leaving the room in a speedy fashion. He speed seemed comparable to Sonic's. You glanced at the clock again. This time it read 8:24. That meant that you had just over an hour and a half to retrieve the Chaos Emerald.

_Well, I guess I'd better get going then. _

As you slid off the couch and left your hotel room, your thoughts slid back to Knuckles and Tails. You wondered what they were up to and whether they were concerned about you.

Unbeknownst to you, their concern would be undoubtedly proven to Shadow within the next half hour.


	16. Chapter 16

As you walked away from the hotel, you felt more energized by the minute. The bright morning sun shone on your back and warmed you to the core. It made you feel like today was a lot more possible than you thought when you looked at the clock three minutes ago. Although it was nice having company to hang around with for the past couple of days, going around by yourself for a little while almost seemed refreshing. You closed your eyes and continued down the path towards the Chaos Emerald and just let your mind wander. . .

Already a few blocks away, Shadow was almost on location of the nearest Chaos Emerald. He chuckled as he thought of his task.

_This is going to be ridiculously easy._

Because the exhibit started at 9, Shadow figured he could simply break in and take it before anyone was there to make any trouble . . . save for a security guard or two. He swiftly kicked open a window to the exhibit building and set off an alarm.

_Oh well_.

He hopped through the window and looked around for the Chaos Emerald. He needed to be fast; the guards would definitely call reinforcements if they found out it was him. Luckily, it was hard to miss; sitting on a podium behind thick glass, the Chaos Emerald was center stage in the room. In a blaze of speed only he or Sonic could make possible, he smashed though the case, snatched the emerald and hopped back though the window.

"Hmm. Even easier than I expected," Shadow said aloud, taking a brief moment to reflect on how quickly he completed his task. The reflection time was very brief indeed since his attention was immediately snatched by a child shouting in his direction.

"Stooooooooooop!"

He knew that voice. It was one of Sonic's companions, Tails. He looked down the street to see Tails and Knuckles racing towards him. A faint smirk flashed across Shadow's face as he realized that perhaps there might be the hint of a challenge in his quest.

"Hey! What are you doing with Lorr and those Chaos Emeralds, Shadow?" Knuckles demanded loudly as he approached.

"What does it matter to you?" Shadow counter-questioned, holding his ground. Clearly angered by Shadow's lack of a reply, Knuckles dashed in and took a wide swing at him when in range. Shadow dashed back a few meters and dodged his punch, making Knuckles hit the already-broken window.

"Why are you holding her captive like this?" Knuckles yelled, charging at Shadow again. Jumping over the angry echidna, Shadow dodged another blow.

"Holding her captive? I tried getting rid of her the moment she was dumped on me! After I learned of her abilities though, we made a deal: in exchange for being with me, she's aiding me in finding all of these," Shadow said, holding his newest Chaos Emerald a little higher in the air.

"Being with. . . you?" Knuckles gaped, stopping in his tracks. "But . . .why?"

"I just told you why," Shadow replied, bitterly. "Now, if you don't mind, I have to meet back up with her." He had a thoughtful look after a second of contemplation. "Hmm, actually, she probably won't be back from getting the third Chaos Emerald for another hour . . ."

"I can't believe you're getting her to do your dirty work," Tails frowned.

"Well, it's still none of your business anyway. Farewell," Shadow sighed as he warped away.

"Oh no! He disappeared again!" Tails exclaimed. "What do you think we should do, Knuckles?" Knuckles stood motionless, as if he fell asleep standing up, and made no response. Through the broken window in the exhibit, Tails glanced over and saw an armed guard inspecting the crime scene. He knew the guard would see them any moment and had no intention of being a wanted criminal again.

"Umm, Knuckles?" Still nothing.

"Snap out of it, Knuckles!"

"Shh. I'm trying to concentrate," Knuckles finally responded. A moment later, his eyes blazed open with renewed vigour.

"Tails, we're going that way," Knuckles declared whilst pointing south. Before so much as getting a response from Tails, he dashed off in the direction he was pointing.

"Huh? W-wait uuuuuup!" Tails yelled, chasing Knuckles down the street. "Will you at least explain why?"

"Isn't it obvious, Tails? Shadow said that he sent her off to get that Chaos Emerald! We just gotta get there before he does!"

As they dashed off into the distance towards the third Chaos Emerald, Shadow sat, watching, up on the roof of a nearby building.

_I knew they'd try to be a hindrance to me. She's a bit pushy and annoying, but she's definitely getting my job done faster . . . and we have a deal after all. I won't lose my radar that easily. _

Rising to his feet, he strode from rooftop to rooftop, following Knuckles and Tails.

You snapped back to reality after half an hour of walking.

_Oh jeez. I really need to get a move on! If I keep moseying along like an idiot, Shadow's going to freak!_

Cringing at the thought of Shadow's wrath, you picked up the pace into a slow run as you followed the path to your destination.

You didn't know at the time, but the race towards the third Chaos Emerald had begun.


	17. Chapter 17

As you hurried through the city towards the Chaos Emerald, a distant humming filled your ears.

_What in the world could that be?_

You disregarded if for the time being and proceeded. The Emerald was only a little farther now. With a quick glance at your surroundings, you assumed that it was in the park ahead of you. By the time you strolled through the park entrance, the distant hum had become a powerful roar nearby. You looked in the sky and saw the source of the noise pollution: A strange flying vehicle that looked oddly familiar. The suspicious machine was dangerously close to the location of the Chaos Emerald, but you had no intention of being spotted by it. You slipped behind a nearby tree and watched patiently as the vehicle descended to the ground. Its powerful motors whipped wind and dust around the area, nearly knocking you over and temporarily blinding you. When your vision returned, you could see a very familiar pilot of the machine in the cockpit.

"Dr. Eggman," you cough, choking on the dust. As it hovered over the ground, you noticed that he seemed a bit confused. He didn't seem to be going anywhere specifically, but he kept circling the area slowly. Too slowly for your liking.

_Does he know where it is?_

The though brought a bit of panic to the pit of your stomach. If that were true, you wouldn't have much of a chance getting it back from such a machine. You needed to act fast. Although you knew where it was, you would still need to search a ten foot area for it since you could only pinpoint it so well. As you prepared to dash, the vehicle landed, causing you to hold off on dashing for a moment as you observed the situation. You waited another minute and saw the doctor emerge from his ship. It shocked you that he would leave the safety of his ship, but you were glad that things were beginning to fall into your favour. He walked directly towards the Emerald and, to your surprise, he began talking to himself.

"This way, right? More to the left? Alright. What? In the _tree_? I can't climb! This was a stupid idea, you know. Oohh, forget it. I'll just break the tree down and get it then! Forget stealth! My plan will work fine!" And with that, he scurried back to his machine. You looked him over. No headset, no microphone, nothing.

_Was he seriously talking to himself? How bizarre._

You shook your head to clear your mind; now was your chance to grab it. You made a dash for the tree that Eggman was inspecting and prayed he was accurate. As you hopped up the tree, you were sure you were stealthy enough to avoid the eye of the doctor. Moments later, however, a far less subtle event happened and you found your body freezing mid-climb as you heard a familiar voice shouting your name.

"Lorraaaaaaaaaine!"

"Kn-Knuckles?" you stammered, looking over. A grin spread across your face as you saw Knuckles and Tails racing towards you. The smile faded fast as the large vehicle started up again and unleashed a small hurricane on the area. The wind knocked Tails back a few feet, but Knuckles, being nearly twice Tails' weight, was able to hold his ground better. He stepped forward slowly, making his way towards you and the Chaos Emerald.

"Oho, Knuckles! Here to ruin my plans again?" Eggman's voice sneered from his machine's speakers, easily spotting the red echidna in the opening.

"What are you up to, Eggman?" Knuckles demanded, barely audible over the roar of the machine.

"None of your business, Knucklehead!" he responded, powering up the cannon-like weapon on the top of his vehicle.

_Such a lame and probably overused joke . . ._ you frowned.

Eggman took aim at Knuckles and fired a high-powered energy shot. Knuckles dodged the attack as it crashed into the earth and ruined six feet of landscaping. Then, he did something Knuckles wasn't expecting: he took aim at the tree.

"Oh no!" Knuckles yelled, dashing towards you as fast as he could with a hurricane raging around him. "Lorraine! Get out of there!" He didn't need to tell you twice, or once, for that matter; you were already jumping down by the time he uttered his warning. You felt the blast as wood chips and branches flew everywhere and, although you weren't on the tree at the time, were still thrown a couple of feet back from it. Although you expected to hit the ground, you hit more of a wall instead. You flew into Knuckles' chest and knocked the both of you down. You felt his body clench around you as the debris from the tree flew at you. A particularly heavy piece careened into your leg.

"Ow! Dammit!" you yelled as it hit you. Though you weren't usually one for cursing, the impact certainly _did _hurt enough to force the words out of you. You squinted through the dust and realized the heavy thing that hit you was the Chaos Emerald that was stuck in the tree. You snatched it up in a hurry and held it close to your torso as the branches whipped across your body.

You could hear the high-pitched whine of the gun powering up for another shot. You knew you couldn't get out of the blast radius if he fired at you again. You crouched lower towards Knuckles in a vain attempt to shield yourself further. Then, to your shock, you heard a small explosion from Eggman's machine. The wind died down and you looked up to see Shadow in battle with Eggman . . . and winning. With one of the engine's blown, the man fled awkwardly into the distance once more.

"A-are you alright?" Knuckles asked, loosening his grip. You could feel his face grow warmer as the tension left the air.

"I'm fine, thanks to you," you smiled, standing up and facing him.

"Right. _He's_the one who destroyed the Doctor's machine," Shadow said with sarcasm and a hint of bitterness as he walked over. Knuckles stood immediately and walked in front of you. Tails dashed over too.

"Lorraine, give me the Chaos Emerald", shadow demanded in a cool and calm voice, reaching his hand out. You nodded, passed in front of Knuckles and were just about to pass it to him when Knuckles grabbed your wrists.

"What are you doing?" Knuckles asked in shock.

"Lemme go, please? I had a deal with him!" you responded, struggling to get your arms back.

"B-but why? Why would you do this?" Tails stammered. "He robbed an exhibit! Why are you helping him?"

"We both already explained the situation," Shadow leered, snatching the Chaos Emerald, "now leave us be". You and Knuckles were silent for a moment, unsure of what to say. What was there to say, really? You only wanted to stay with Shadow to get back to Tails and Knuckles, but you felt bad if you broke your contract so soon. Then, Tails broke the silence.

"Eggman's up to something, guys."

"He always is," Knuckles sighed.

"I'm pretty sure he's trying to collect the Chaos Emeralds," you mention.

"I know," Shadow nodded.

You spun around and looked at him. "Excuse me? You _knew_ he was?"

"Of course".

"But how?"

"There was an investigation done on the Doctor's current activities. I'm not sure of all the details, but I know that he wants 'the seven gems of power to bring upon near destruction'. I can only imagine that he was talking about the Chaos Emeralds, so I'm keeping an eye on them for now. In addition, he's been talking to himself recently for some reason, which is strange behaviour, even for the doctor."

"You're right," you nodded, "he was talking to himself a little while ago too. Actually, it seemed like he was talking to someone else, but nobody was there. Not even a visible microphone . . ."

"We need to stop him then!" Tails declared.

"You two can do what you want. However, Lorraine is helping _me_," Shadow stated firmly. "Come on, Lorraine". You stood there silently for a moment, debating your options. You wanted to stay with Knuckles and Tails, but you also knew you should probably fulfill a bit more of your deal with Shadow first.

"I . . . I'll still help you with the Master Emerald, Knuckles! I'm sorry, but I'm sure we'll see each other again soon!" you finally say, going over to Shadow. You saw a faint yet dominant grin pass over Shadow's face as you approached his side. Tails, however, had shocked expression and Knuckles' looked a bit hurt.

After a pause, you stepped back over to them. You slipped your hands up onto Knuckles' shoulders and looked at him intently. "Don't worry," you cooed gently, "it'll be fine, okay?" You tried to use a comforting voice, but you could tell Knuckles was still uncomfortable being around you. You gave a light chuckle and quickly pulled him into a hug. You could feel him grow warmer and tense up as usual. "You're so bad with girls, you know that?" you teased and then quickly released him.

Tails giggled a bit at the spectacle; it wasn't everyday he could see tough-as-nails Knuckles melt like a stick of butter left in the sun. Shadow, on the other hand, remained silent.

"A-ah . . ." Knuckles stammered as you turned towards Shadow. You looked back to him.

"Yes?"

"Well, uh . . . if Shadow isn't working you this evening . . . I-I mean if you guys aren't looking for Chaos Emeralds . . ." Knuckles murmured without making eye contact, "could we um . . . meet back here or something to uh . . . talk?"

"Six sound good?" you asked. He nodded with his eyes closed. You chucked again.

"Okay then. Bye guys! See you later tonight!" you waved.

"Bye," Tails said sadly.

"Hurry up," Shadow said, putting a hand firmly on your shoulder. He yelled "Chaos Control" and you were once again launched into a space/time rift, only to arrive in your hotel room.

"Ugh, I _hate_ the feeling of Chaos Control!" you whined as you gripped the bed for support. You shook the feeling after a few minutes though and a new sensation took over your body: tiredness.

"Ugh, what a crazy morning," you yawned, plopping your butt on the bed. Your lack of sleep was already catching up to you. Shadow sat down beside you, but you hardly noticed as you curled up on the bed. He was talking, saying things like "thank you" and "I appreciate your help", but you really weren't registering it at the moment. Your thoughts made you numb to the outside world. Shadow picked up on this and decided to turn on the TV. You, on the other hand, felt your eyelids grow heavy and a grin spread across your face as you dreamt of your upcoming date with Knuckles.


	18. Chapter 18

You sighed softly as you regained consciousness for the second time today. As you laid there, eyes closed and listening to your surroundings, you felt more like yourself than you did all day. The weight of sleep deprivation was lifted and you were ready to tackle the day once more . . . shortly. You stretched and yawned, accidentally kicking Shadow lightly in the process.

"Oh, I'm sorry," you apologized. You vaguely remembered him sitting at the edge of the bed when you crashed, but you didn't think he would still be there.

"It's fine," he said, clearly paying more attention to the television than to you.

You sat up, bringing your knees closer to your chest, relaxed your arms on your knees and then propped your chin up onto your arms. "Did you seriously sit there the entire time I slept?"

"Yes, but you wouldn't have noticed if I had or not. The cleaning lady came through already and did the bathroom and you did little more than roll over a bit." He smiled and looked down at you. "You're quite the heavy sleeper, aren't you, Lorraine?"

You looked away, embarrassed. It was true that you were a bit of a heavy sleeper and weren't particularly proud of it.

"Oh, don't be offended," he grumbled, turning his attention back to the television. "You're far too sensitive, Lorraine."

"Oh, whatever," you sighed, looking up at the clock. It was a little after two. "Hey, you wanna grab some lunch or something?" you asked.

"Not really."

"Oh, come on. I'm hungry," you whined.

"Fine," he sighed, flicking off the television. "Is there anywhere we could go that's in the direction of a Chaos Emerald at least?"

You shook your head. "Nope. The other Chaos Emeralds aren't in the city. Sorry."

"Alright. Let's go find a restaurant". He slid off the bed and headed for the door.

"Do you know a place?" you asked, following him.

"I can find one."

And with that, the two of you were out the door once more.

Back in Tails' home, Knuckles was cramming another bite of his lunch in his mouth. Though the food was good, it was impossible to tell with the sour expression he had on his face the whole meal.

"What's the problem, Knux?" Sonic asked, his mouth half stuffed with a chili dog.

_You and Tails are going with me to the park this evening, _the echidna thought.

He was hoping to hang out with you and _just _you, but that wasn't the case anymore. Tails wanted to use the meeting to get everyone together to formulate a plan to defeat Eggman. Though his intentions were pure and just, Tails' plans had put Knuckles in a bitter mood. Besides, all that worrying about you he did drew him away from his real task: finding the pieces of the Master Emerald.

"Hey, I have an idea. How about you two stop Eggman and I help you out whilst looking for the Master Emerald shards like usual? I need like 20 more shards, you know. Kinda my duty and all. . ." Knuckles said negatively.

"Oh, that's right. You broke it _again_," Sonic teased. "Well, you do what you need to do, I guess".

"Good!" Knuckles exclaimed, standing up. "I'll see you guys at 6:30 then?"

"You mean 6:00, right?" Tails corrected.

"No, I mean 6:30. Bye".

Sonic and Tails stared at the door as Knuckles stormed through it.

"What the heck is he talking about?" Sonic asked.

"I wish I knew . . ." Tails replied, equally as confused.

Knuckles, meanwhile, was dashing back to Westopolis.

_All I need to do is find Lorr again and tell her to meet me a bit earlier. Then, I can talk to her in peace!_

Meanwhile, after 20 minutes of searching for a good place to eat, you and Shadow found a nice café to dine in. As you sat down at your table and looked at the menu, anticipation built up inside you.

"I can't wait to try something! Everything looks, sounds and smells so good!" you beamed.

Shadow was less enthusiastic. "I don't really care what I eat. It's not important to me."

"Not important?" you exclaimed, looking up from your menu. "Food is not only delicious and nutritious, but, when done properly, it's a work of art!"

"Oh? Are you much of a cook?" Shadow asked flatly whilst looking at his menu.

"Uh . . . W-well . . ." you stuttered in mild embarrassment as you broke eye contact, "not . . . not really. I just like eating it".

Shadow chuckled. You knew he wasn't laughing to be offensive, but it still annoyed you a bit.

It wasn't long after you ordered that you got your food. Although Shadow was indifferent about his food, you enjoyed every bite.

_How can he eat so apathetically?_ You wondered as you glanced across the table towards him. He ate so neatly and almost robotically, as if he found food to be just for fuel. You looked away from him before he caught you staring.

The meal had hit a slightly awkward silence which caused your mind to wander back to the events of this morning. You thought of your near-death experience and how Knuckles protected you. A smile spread across your face at the thought. Then, another thought occurred to you, the thought of why you weren't actually dead this moment. It wasn't all because of Knuckles.

"Shadow, I'm so sorry! I can't believe I didn't even thank you for saving my life today!" you gasped at your own absent-mindedness, breaking the silence.

Shadow looked up at you from his dish. "Well, I couldn't just let you die. As much as I hate to admit it, you're a big help."

You smiled at the compliment. To you, Shadow didn't seem like the type to give away compliments very liberally, so you certainly took it to heart. "Thanks, Shadow."

_I guess he's not so bad after all._

It was a strange moment; you knew it was. Your eyes were locked on one another and, instead of it being in spite or in rage like it was last night, it seemed as if it were in appreciation. The two of you seemed awkwardly close for the moment, as if a slight bond began to form between teammates . . . between friends.

"Baah. This is beginning to feel too much like a date. Let's hurry this up," you complained, stuffing another large, delicious bite into your mouth.

_The only date I want today is coming up in 3 hours._

You weren't the only one who felt the scene looked too much like a date. Across the street, unbeknownst to you, Knuckles was thinking the same thing. Knuckles clenched his fist in rage. Every fiber of his being wanted to plough it straight through Shadow's skull. Luckily for Shadow, the sight had drained Knuckles so entirely, his legs were hardly able to keep him steady. His body quivered with betrayal.

_Wh-what? What are they . . .? No. No, I must be seeing things._

He blinked hard, trying to clear the image from his mind. When he opened his eyes again, however, there it was again; the sight of you and Shadow smiling at each other in a cute, little restaurant. He felt his breathing get shallow and turned away from the sight that appalled him so.

_Women are . . . too much trouble. Forget it! If she wants to spend so much time with Shadow, then so be it. I should've known when she went back with him anyway. Ugh. Well, whatever. I've got more important things to do than talk to that . . . that hussy!_

He wished he never followed the signal of the Chaos Emeralds in Shadow's possession to find you. His goals for the evening were no longer to meet with you early and take you out. Instead, he went back to his original plan to find all the shards of the Master Emerald. You were officially off his priority list.


	19. Chapter 19

You could feel the permanent smile etched on your face as you progressed back towards the park after dinner. Your step was light – bouncy even – and in perfect time with the song in your heart. You couldn't possibly walk as calmly as you normally did; your anticipation made it impossible for you to do anything calmly.

_A date! A real date!_ You thought, looking up into the still sunny sky. Clearly, it didn't get dark around Westopolis until quite late.

As you approached the meeting spot, your bouncy walk became an excited run. Your mood was soaring when you entered the clearing, looking for Knuckles . . . and it quickly crashed when you saw Sonic and Tails instead.

"What the . . .? Where's Knuckles?" you asked aloud.

"Dunno. I think he had the wrong time," Sonic replied with a slight bit of indifference. "No worries though; we'll fill him in eventually."

Your jittery anticipation left you as reality set in and you could feel your body slump a bit.

"How the heck could he get the time wrong? _He's _the one who suggested the meeting!" you whined. You weren't used to being stood up.

"I know, I know. He's a bit of a knucklehead, hence the name," Sonic chuckled.

"Umm, where's Shadow?" Tails asked, changing the subject slightly.

"He had no interest being here," you replied. _Why would he? This was supposed to be a date!_

"Figures," Sonic sighed. "Look Lorr, you seem trustworthy enough, so can you do me a favour?"

"What?"

"I know we can leave collecting the Chaos Emeralds to Shadow, but can you keep an eye on him for us and make sure they aren't used for something evil?"

You shrugged. "I'm not the guardian of any of the emeralds. Knuckles is." Your current mood wasn't making you very agreeable.

"I know, but you're looking for them with Shadow anyway."

"Fine," you sighed.

After that little exchange, your mind began wandering and you weren't paying much attention to the conversation. You got bits and pieces of it: Sonic and Tails were going to look for Eggman, defeat his underlings. . . Nothing out of the ordinary really. You didn't care at the moment because you weren't thinking about being a hero, you were thinking about where in the world Knuckles was. You knew he could be a bit of a turd, but he wouldn't blow you off like this for no reason. Your mood suddenly jumped from depression to rage.

"THAT JERK!" you exclaimed, punching a nearby tree hard enough to partially snap it.

The expression on the two boy's face exuded shock and fear. Surely, they knew what it was like to be around a violent woman.

"Wh-what's the matter, Lorr?" Sonic asked through the teeth of a worried smile.

"I wanna know where Knuckles is . . . so I can send him into orbit," you answer, punching your open palm threateningly. Their fear only seemed to intensify.

"W-well, he did say before he left us th-that he was going to go l-look for the M-Master Emerald sh-shards . . ." Tails shivered, inching closer to Sonic.

The realization hit you so hard at that moment that you knew how that poor tree felt. The thought came quickly and almost knocked the wind out of you.

_He's . . . mad at me! He _must_ be! _

You think back to when you offered to help him look for the shards . . . and how you defected from Knuckled to Shadow. Sure, you said you'd still help him find them, but you put your deal with Shadow above helping a fellow echidna associated with the 7 gems in the sky.

_There was no reason why I couldn't have gone back to Knuckles today after finding these guys again . ._ .

Your own foolishness made you feel terrible. Your throat and eyes hurt from holding back tears. It was as if you betrayed your lineage.

"I need to go," you squeak, biting your lower lip.

"What's wrong now?" Tails asked, his fear replaced with concern.

"I need to go back to Shadow," you whimper. It was a lie though; you were meeting up with Shadow in an hour and it was only about 15 minutes away from the park.

"Uh, alright then. See ya," Sonic said uneasily. He seemed reluctant to let you be, but could tell that you wanted to be alone. You appreciated that. He was officially on you good side.

You set off at a quick pace and darted deeper into the park until you came upon a bench. You sat down and finally let your tears flow.

"Oh, I'm such an idiot!" you sobbed violently.

It wasn't just the fact that you felt as though you failed your lineage, you also felt like you lost someone who could've been a great friend.

_Curse my inability to finish any of my goals!_

As your tears of frustration died down, your mood began to stabilize and you became more contemplative.

_I'm probably just overreacting. I'm sure Knuckles is angry with me, so I suppose I should find a way to reconcile. Obviously, the easiest way is to just go with him and find the shards . . . but I'm not going to leave Shadow in a similar situation. Hmm . . ._

You closed your eyes in thought. You could feel the presence of all the nearby Chaos Emeralds as well as the nearby bits and pieces of the Master Emerald.

_There's only one possible route I can take._

You faced in the direction of the next Chaos Emerald. It was about a city away and had 3 Emerald shards in its vicinity.

"Alright," you said aloud, standing up with determination, "if I need to be with Shadow and still be on good terms with Knuckles . . . I guess I'll just collect everything myself!"


	20. Chapter 20

"I'm not used to this, Lorraine," Shadow said to you slightly provocatively.

"Too bad!" you gasped. You were beginning to get tired.

"I'm far more used to you whining about something as opposed to taking action," he continued.

"Oh, be quiet!"

Upon your return to Shadow, your new determination compelled you to continue your search immediately. That apparently worked well for him, and the two of you dashed off in the direction of the next Chaos Emerald. Sadly, between his use of rocket shoes and your inconsistency with exercise, all that running was tiring you out. And the speed! You weren't used to running this long this fast. You could tell, however, that Shadow was nowhere near his top speed.

_I'm clearly not the type who's built for speed . . ._

Even though you were more or less leading the way, you were trailing behind. Knowing there was no way you'd catch up to him anyway, you took the opportunity to make sure you were on track with the next Chaos Emerald. Suddenly, your mental radar alerted you of something.

"Sh-Shadow! Wait!" you gasped as you grinded to a halt.

He stopped and turned to you.

"One of the Chaos Emeralds that was further away is moving towards the one we're after!" you panted.

"So someone else is after the Chaos Emeralds as well . . ." Shadow murmured. "Alright then. Let's hurry up."

Shadow dashed off in the direction you pointed him in. Your legs were burning, but you continued after him. You didn't have a chance of keeping up with him though; he was moving significantly faster than he was a moment ago.

He looked back at you again and stopped.

"You're way too slow, Lorraine," he frowned as you caught up to him.

"Sorry," you panted.

He pulled out a Chaos Emerald silently. You already had a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach when you saw the blue gem glitter in the evening sun. He then proceeded to take a step closer to you and quickly but gently grabbed your wrist. You pulled away instinctively at the action but he maintained his grasp without so much as flinching at your response.

"Hold on, alright?" He said, turning towards the direction in which the target Chaos Emerald was.

You reluctantly wrapped your hands around his wrist and arm and held your breath. Why hold your breath? Well it couldn't hurt, right? You heard Shadow yell "Chaos Control" and you immediately shut your eyes. The unsettling ride begun again and knocked the wind out of you pretty fast. You knew you were moving at an intense speed, but you felt as if you left your stomach back at your starting point. Like before, the trip was incredibly short, and you were soon on solid ground. Your body buckled forward as your stomach seemed to have caught up with you. The nausea was intense but brief and the urge to throw up soon passed. You were as unstable as the last time you warped, but it seemed as though Shadow anticipated it this time; he kept a hold of your arm as you wobbled around. Once he could tell that you could stand on your own, Shadow let go of you.

You let out an agitated moan. "I really hate doing that".

"Too bad. Which way is it from here?"

You shook your head in order to clear it and closed your eyes again to focus. You soon locked on to everything in the area.

"It's really close. It's like 100 meters away at 10 o'clock," you reply while pointing in that direction.

"Is the other Chaos Emerald nearby?"

You nodded. "It's about three times as far away at 8 o'clock".

"Lead the way then".

You hurried along towards the next Chaos Emerald as fast as you could. Unfortunately, it wasn't as fast as you would have liked; your legs still hurt and the whole warping thing was still having a bit of an effect on you. Also, it was a slightly rocky region and treading through it proved a bit harder than before. Nonetheless, you pushed yourself the additional 100 meters to where the sensation was the strongest. When you were within a few meters of the shard, you stopped.

"It's around here," you said, sitting down on a nearby rock.

Shadow looked around as you sat there rubbing your calves.

"I don't see it," he reported.

You pointed down towards the terrain silently.

"It's buried?" he asked.

You nodded. Shadow looked at you momentarily in thought. Finally, he spoke again: "I'll give you two minutes to catch your breath and then we're finishing this up."

"Thank you," you panted gratefully.

You sat there for the next couple of minutes trying to stretch the fatigue out of your legs and catching your breath. Shadow remained silent for the solid two minutes and you really couldn't think of anything to say, so you just let the awkward silence continued for a bit. Finally, after your time was up, you felt a bit more recharged and stood up.

"Okay! Let's do this!" you shouted.

"Be quiet," Shadow scolded. "You said someone else was hunting them as well."

"Oh, right. Sorry," you apologized quietly.

The two of you began digging for the Chaos Emerald. You hurled large rocks away from where the sensation was coming from and felt more comfortable doing this kind of work as opposed to running.

_I'm significantly stronger in my upper body than my lower body, so I won't look as pathetic doing this._

After a few minutes, you finally found it. You slipped your hand between a couple of rocks and pulled out a dusty, but still beautiful, purple Chaos Emerald. You smiled as you cleaned it off a bit with your gloves; it reminded you of the Master Amethyst and it gave you a pleasant feeling in your chest.

"I like this one the best. It's so cute," you giggle.

"We have over half of the Chaos Emeralds now," Shadow grinned. He didn't seem so bad to you when he was pleased.

You watched as Shadow's positive expression turned to mild surprise as he quickly turned around.

"It's been a while. What do you want?" he questioned towards the fading sunset.

You looked around to see who he was talking to when suddenly a figure appeared nearby. You could sense the presence of the fifth Chaos Emerald as well as an inevitable confrontation as the figure walked toward the two of you.

_I have a bad feeling about this . . ._


	21. Chapter 21

"Well, thanks so much for finding that little Chaos Emerald for me, Shadow. You're so sweet," said the approaching figure.

Shadow's expression became a bit smugger at that last comment. You observed the woman who spoke those words with a bit of a frown. She was a light grey bat who looked to be a bit older than you and wore an unusual and revealing outfit. She was very pretty, but she has an unsettling, promiscuous aura to her that made you uncomfortable.

"Who's she?" you asked Shadow as you clenched the Chaos Emerald a bit tighter.

"She's Rouge the Bat," he informed you. "She's a government agent and a thief."

"A thief . . ." you echo. The mention of a thief seemed familiar to you.

_Is she the same thief that tried stealing the Chaos Emeralds from Shadow before?_

"I prefer the term treasure hunter," cooed Rouge.

"Why are you after them this time?" Shadow asked. He seemed more comfortable with her than you initially anticipated, especially since you thought she tried stealing from him in the past.

"I'm working on the Eggman investigation of course. I was sent to go keep tabs on him and I just happened to be in the area of a couple of lovely gems, so I decided to take a teensy detour. I know Eggman's after them and all, but you know I just can't resist."

"I see."

"Now, is there any chance you'll be a real prince and just give me the Chaos Emerald? Maybe even the other ones you have on you too?" Rouge asked flirtatiously. You assumed she was the type to flaunt her body and charm to get what she wanted.

Shadow shook his head. "No, I'm keeping an eye on them for now, so I would much rather you gave me yours".

Rouge frowned too. "Now Shadow, you know I wouldn't give up one of them for nothing at all. Can't we just make a deal like the old days?"

Shadow remained silent, as if he were weighing his options. He clearly took too long for Rouge and so she spoke again.

"Do you maybe have another wonderful gem to trade me? Or maybe you know where I can get something bigger and better than a Chaos Emerald?"

"You mean the Master Emerald?" you piped up.

Rouge took note of you and then gave a slight giggle. "Well, I already have a bit of that".

With that, she pulled out her Chaos Emerald and four shards of the Master Emerald.

"F-four shards?" you exclaimed.

She gave a quick nod and wink as you felt your self-esteem begin to plummet.

_How could I not sense them? Was the signal from the Chaos Emerald overriding the shards that much? God, I'm useless! I can't sense things well enough for Shadow and I can't collect the shards for Knuckles either! How am I ever going to restore the Master Amethyst and my island if I can't even perform simple tasks like this?  
_

"Interested in them? I DO like your sparkly little cuffs," she said slyly, eying the emerald cuffs of your gloves and sandals. "All four of them _may_ be worth a shard. Maybe".

"No!" you bark at her. You weren't in the mood to put up with her anymore.

Rouge shrugged. "Suit yourself. I thought I was being generous. A piece of a powerful jewel for a few cuffs? Sounds like a great deal to me."

"Rouge, don't provoke Lorraine," Shadow muttered. He seemed to sense you were beginning to get upset.

"Lorraine, huh? Well, if she doesn't have a nice return, she's not getting anything from me. Do you really not have anything interesting to trade me?"

"It's gone." You mutter quietly.

"What's that now?" Rouge asked.

"You're looking for big, priceless gems, right? Well, even if I even considered trading it – which I wouldn't – my gem . . . is gone. And I don't know if I'll ever get it back anymore. . ."

You bit your lip and sat down. You tried to redeem yourself this evening, but although you managed to acquire a fourth Chaos Emerald and the fifth one was staring you in the face, you felt as though you were failing since it looked like you weren't going to get the fifth Emerald or the four shards. Your self-esteem was sinking by the second.

"Your gem? You have a gem, do you?" Rouge's attention was solely on you the moment you said "gem".

You sighed at the thought of how you'd never get to see the Master Amethyst. You couldn't think much though; Rouge was persistent.

"Aww. I know it's painful when someone takes your jewels. But all you can do is go out there and get a bigger one, right?"

_That sounds terrible . . ._

"Jewels like the Master Amethyst are irreplaceable. Even something as distant and practically legendary as the Master Diamond couldn't replace it in my heart . . ."

"M-Master _Amethyst_? Master _Diamond_?" Rouge practically glowed with excitement. She bounded forward and got in your face eagerly. "The Master Amethyst is lost to you, but you know where the Master Diamond is, right?"

You said too much. Your sadness was replaced with and uncomfortable reluctance of being so close to her as you leaned away from the woman. "S-sorta . . ."

"Where is it? How big is it? Is it the size of the Master Emerald? What's it like?"

All the questions were bothering you. "Look, it's like the Master Emerald, but a bit bigger maybe and it's in the sky where you'll never find it".

"On an island?"

"You'll never find it. Nobody ever does."

"Then I guess you've never met a treasure hunter like me," she said with a wink.

Rouge then did something you actually weren't expecting: she dropped the Chaos Emerald and the Master Emerald shards in front of you.

"Wha . . .?" You were stunned by her actions.

"You don't seem so bad. Plus, you seem to know about some amazing jewels. I don't know what you're up to with Shadow, but I have bigger fish to fry than a little Chaos Emerald now, especially since Shadow's holding onto them for safe keeping. As for the shards . . . I guess I'll _loan_ you them for now, since you probably to have a purpose for them."

You lit up a bit at the thought of gaining another Chaos Emerald and four whole shards of the Master Emerald.

_Maybe . . . maybe I _can_ get Knuckles to forgive me now._

"Thank you, Rouge. I really appreciate it," you said gratefully.

"Yeah, you'd better! But it doesn't matter; I'll get them back soon enough. Even if you don't give them back, I'll still get them. I always do!"

Rouge then gave a quick two-fingered salute-like motion as if to bid farewell and flew away.

You were still kind of surprised by her kindness.

"Is she normally that nice?" you asked Shadow once Rouge was gone.

"Rouge has been a good teammate to me in the past . . . but I know how strong her lust for jewels is. It seems unusual for her to part with so much, but at the same time you did tell her about some giant diamond in the sky, so it's not completely outlandish."

You felt a bit bad about telling her about the Master Diamond, but knew that she could never find it anyway.

_Even if she located the island, it should be heavily guarded._

Shadow picked up the cyan Chaos Emerald and looked at it for a moment. You then proceeded to grab the four shards.

_That makes five shards I have including the one I got from Shadow last night._

Shadow turned to you and, after a brief moment of silence, spoke to you.

"Lorraine?"

"Yes?" you said, looking back up at him.

"You're a good teammate too. In two days, I managed to acquire 5 Chaos Emeralds because of your help. I appreciate it."

You smiled. Contrary to what your self-esteem was telling you previously, you were certainly making progress. You had a large chunk of the Master Emerald, you helped Shadow acquire 5 Chaos Emeralds, you were starting to make friends and you had the potential to get Knuckles to forgive you.

"Thanks, Shadow. That actually means a lot to me right now."

_Maybe things are looking up after all._


	22. Chapter 22

The sky was slowly becoming a shade of purple and deep blue as the temperature dropped a couple of degrees. It was dusk and the world was slowly fading to black.

"Shadow," you said as you turned to your companion, "it's getting dark. Where do you want to spend the night?"

Shadow observed your surroundings. Ever since he got a hold of the pale blue Chaos Emerald, the two of you have been walking. The scenery had changed from a rocky region to a grassy one. A few trees were also present, but it was mostly a slightly hilly terrain of grass as far as the eye could see.

"Well," he said, "there's a city that's about a two hour walk from here if you wish to sleep in a hotel. The other option is to just sleep outside. Since you seem like the kind of female that would prefer a hotel, we should probably just keep walking".

"Hey! I can handle the outdoors just fine!" you pouted. "We can sleep out here and it'll be no problem for me." You actually wanted to sleep outside tonight; there were three Master Emerald shards around you and you didn't want to go too far from the area. Besides, sleeping outside wasn't a huge issue for you, though Shadow was correct about you preferring a hotel over grass, but that was normal, right?

"Going into town isn't a big deal. I have good night vision," Shadow said. You remembered how well he navigated the forest last night and you agreed that his night vision was indeed top notch. Nonetheless, you knew it would be better to stay outside.

"Nope. We're sleeping here. I declare this spot 'camp' and that's that." And with that, you sat on the ground and crossed your arms defiantly.

"You can be incredibly childish, you know that?" Shadow frowned, sitting more or less beside you.

You didn't answer him. You simply looked to the sky, ignoring Shadow and admiring the view. You eventually laid down, smiling at the clouds. You loved the sky at sunset and dusk. Shadow gave a sigh as if to acknowledge that you weren't acknowledging him and laid down too. You stopped ignoring him and looked over at him. He was also looking up at the sky now. He seemed lost in thought.

"Whatcha thinking about?" you asked innocently.

"Nothing that concerns you," replied Shadow, closing his eyes.

You frowned. "So, you're just gonna lie there thinking for the night?"

"That's the plan."

Your frown turned into a grimace.

"Is there a problem, Lorraine?" he asked without so much as opening his eyes.

"Can we have a campfire or something? It's too early to just turn in."

"Do what you wish."

"Fine," you said, standing up.

"Are you going to get firewood?" he asked.

"Yep," you lied. Maybe you could grab a few twigs on the way, but the main reason you were leaving was to get the Master Emerald shards you sensed earlier.

"Be careful then," he said. You smiled at him and walked off into the distance.

As you walked away, you could feel Shadow's eyes on your back. You couldn't tell if it was from worry or suspicion. Did he know you were up to something or were you just being paranoid? To take your mind off it, you closed your eyes and tried sensing the presence of sacred jewels. You sensed the three shards you felt earlier and they were the only things in range of you at the moment. It hit you then that finding the other shards and Chaos Emeralds will be incredibly difficult from this point on.

_What will I do if I can't find them soon?_

You tried putting that thought out of your head as you headed for the nearest shard. It wasn't far at all. You hurried over towards the sensation until you found it nestled in the grass.

_Boy, I hope the other ones are as easy to find as this one._

The second one wasn't too bad either. You walked a little while until you sensed it. It was clearly underground.

_Looks like I'm going to get my hands dirty for this one. Oh well._

You caressed the ground with your hand, judging how deep down it was. You could tell that it was just below you. You pressed your hand harder against the ground and scraped away a layer of earth. After a few moments of digging, you eventually freed the small shard from its shallow grave in the earth. It glowed faintly in your hands. You dusted it off a bit and it seemed to come back to life a bit.

_One more to go._

Sadly, the last one was nowhere near as easy to get to as the other two. You followed the feeling until you came to a large ditch.

_Please don't let the shard be down there . . ._

You looked into the ditch and saw a faintly glowing shard at the bottom. It was in there. You gave a sigh and slowly made your way down the steep slope. It clearly wasn't slow enough though and you ended up slipping and landing hard on your tailbone.

"Oww . . ." you moaned, standing up. "The things I do for these little buggers. Knuckles owes me big."

With a sour look on your face, you proceeded with grabbing the final shard in your vicinity.

_It's great that I have eight shards now . . . but I have no idea where to go from here . . ._

You drew a sigh and proceeded with climbing out of the ditch.

"That certainly doesn't look like firewood," Shadow said from the top of the ditch and startling you immensely. You lost your grip in the shock and tumbled backwards into the ditch. Luckily, Shadow grabbed your hands before you hit the ground and saved your tailbone from another bruise.

Ah! Shadow! W-where did you come from?" You asked in shock.

"I knew you were up to something," he stated, helping you out from the ditch.

"Okay, okay. You caught me."

"What in the world are you up to, Lorraine?"

You looked up at Shadow and then darted your eyes away as you held up the Master Emerald shard you just acquired.

"Oh right. I remember now. You were after the Emerald shards. What did you want these for anyway?" Shadow asked. His expression was serious and a tad quizzical. You felt like he was treating you like a kid, always wanting to know what you were up to, and it annoyed you a bit. You were, however, keeping him in the dark about the shards and figured that after all the two of you have been though, he deserved an explanation.

"I want these because they belong to Knuckles. I'm helping him out while I'm helping you out."

"Oh. That's nothing then. I don't know why you didn't just tell me this before," Shadow said, clearly not finding this to be a big deal.

"Well what were you expecting? Me to tell you that I was going take the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald and take over the world?" you asked sarcastically.

"Don't joke about that kind of thing."

You grimaced. You couldn't understand why everyone around here was either trying to take over the world or save it.

"Honestly though, since you don't plan on actually using them, I really don't care. Knuckles is the guardian of that Emerald anyway I believe. Why didn't you tell me that's why you wanted them?"

You were silent.

"Lorraine?"

"Because I . . . I wanted to be the one to tell Knuckles what I've been up to, not you or anyone else! I was supposed to help him in the first place and I got sidetracked helping you. Don't get me wrong, I like helping you too but . . . well . . . there's more between Knuckles and I than just being the same species, you know." Which was true; you were both guardians.

Shadow said nothing at first but eventually uttered "I see," and the conversation died for a moment. You wondered if you insulted him since you basically implied that you'd rather be searching with Knuckles than with him.

"You'll keep it a secret, right? Make sure nobody else hears about this so I can surprise him and maybe he'll forgive me?" you asked after a minute or two of silence.

"I suppose" he said indifferently.

"I'm sorry for not telling you, Shadow."

"I really do hate not knowing what's going on around me, Lorraine. But now that I do know, you don't need to sneak off anymore, alright? If it's not going to be a huge detour for us, you can do what you want, I suppose."

"Really? That'd be great! Thanks so much!" you cheered, grabbing Shadow's shoulders and holding him at arm's length.

Shadow backed away from your grasp and looked away from you thoughtfully. "Yes, well we both have goals to achieve. In any case, let's go get some sleep, Alright?"

"Okay. Thanks again, Shadow".

"You're welcome, Lorraine".

"You really need to start calling me Lorr. Lorraine's too formal".

". . . No. I prefer calling you Lorraine".

You sighed. You then inquired about that firewood as the two of you made your way back to the grassy area you dubbed "camp". Shadow said he'd think about getting it. Maybe.

Meanwhile, over on the floating Angel Island, Knuckles was climbing up over the edge of his home. He walked up the altar and sat near the top. He stretched his tired body; he'd been all over today trying to get the shards. Luckily, he found 5 additional shards that evening, but it had left him drained. He looked up at the sky and thought about how the last time he'd been up there, he met you.

_No, I don't want to think about Lorr anymore_, he thought as he tried pushing you from his mind. _She's not worth thinking about_. It was no use; you'd been on the back of his mind for a while now. He was mad at you, but he still felt something from your absence.

_Do I feel . . . lonely?_

As he watched the sky absent-mindedly, he noticed something other than clouds and faint stars. He was instantly alert and ready to defend the half of the Master Emerald he had.

"You!" He barked as Rouge landed on his island. "I won't let you take it again! Go away!"

"Oh relax, Knuckie. I'm not here for_ that_."

"That'll be a first. And don't call me 'Knuckie' either!"

"Okay, okay. I just wanted to talk," she smiled, sitting down close to him.

"About what?" he asked defensively, moving away from her slightly.

"Well you see, today I met this echidna girl –"

"Wait, what? Was she about my age?" Knuckles asked with far more enthusiasm than he wanted.

"Yes, I think so. Anyway-"

"And was she light purple but a darker purple on the tips of her hair? And kinda curly at the bottom?"

"Yeah, yeah. As I was saying-"

"And her name's Lorr and she's kinda nice? Maybe a little pushy but still kind of prett –" Knuckles cut himself off this time, realizing what kind of compliments he was paying you.

Rouge frowned. "Okay. I get it, I get it. You know her."

Knuckles reddened a bit at his answers and enthusiasm and replied with a simple "sorta".

"Anyway, so she told me about this thing called the Master Diamond in the sky. Obviously, I just_ have_ to have it. Do you know where it is?"

"Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you," he pouted.

"Oh, don't be like that. Help a lady out, will you?" she asked, batting her long eyelashes.

"I already told you I don't know where it is. Besides, you're not much of a lady, you thief."

"Oh, then who is, hmm? That Lorr girl who's after her fair share of jewels too? I saw her collecting the Chaos Emeralds for Shadow _and_ the Master Emerald shards for herself today," Rouge retorted bitterly.

"W-wait! She's after _my_ emerald?" Knuckles asked in both shock and rage.

"Oh, yes! Anyway, I'd love to stick around and chat, but I have one more person to go and ask about this Master Diamond. _Master diamond_! Oh, that sounds lovely! Bye-bye!"

Knuckles was too stunned to stop Rouge and ask her what was going on.

_I can't believe this! She pretended to be on my side and she wanted it for herself all this time? , _thought Knuckles_. Well, she's not getting _my_ emerald if I have a say in it! I'll just have to hunt her down and take it from her myself!_


	23. Chapter 23

After a sound sleep, you awoke to the sound of movement nearby. You slowly opened your eyes to the sight of the burnt out fire pit that you convinced Shadow to help you with. You then glanced to your left to see Shadow, who was only about three feet from you, sitting up. He noticed your glance and watched you take a deep, rejuvenating stretch.

"You're awake," Shadow said to you as you sat up.

"Awake and hungry," you yawned.

"You're always hungry," he stated with a shake of his head.

You made a face and then smiled at him. He knew you too well already.

"Well, I suppose we can go get food on the way to the next Chaos Emerald. Which direction do we go?"

Shadow finally posed the dreaded question. You really didn't know how he would take the answer. Your smile faded quickly at the thought that you were of no use to him at the moment. What would you do if Shadow turned you away because of it? The thought made you almost wish you'd had gone with Knuckles when you had the chance. Regardless, you accepted your fate. You drew a sigh and announced that you had no idea where the other two Chaos Emeralds were.

"What about those shards you were looking for? Are any of those nearby?"

You shook your head. As you looked down at your feet, you wondered what his response would be. You hoped that he would leave you a map or something at least if he completely ditched you; you still had absolutely no idea where you were. You heard him stand up and glanced over in his direction. Much to your surprise, he was holding out his hand to you.

"Wha . . ?" you breathed, looking up at him.

"Well, if we have no leads, we might as well go to the city. We may find some leads there. At the very least, we can get breakfast."

_Did I hear him right? He doesn't sound mad or anything. He was so cold to me when we first met. He was bossy and apathetic then, but he almost seems . . . friendly today. Does he really not mind?_

"Come on already. You look like a dear in headlights," muttered Shadow, gesturing towards you with his outstretched hand.

"R-right, sorry," you stuttered, allowing him to help you up. "But . . . are you really not mad?"

"It's an inconvenience, but I've found them without radar before." As he looked at your concerned expression, he gave a slightly comforting, slightly serious face and said "Look, Lorraine. As slow, whiney and pushy as you are, you're not a burden. You're an asset and an ally."

Excluding the mild insult, you were touched by his words. It was if he knew what you were thinking and erased the worries from your mind. With a friend like him, you knew you could get all the Chaos Emeralds and all the Master Emerald shards to make everyone happy . . . including yourself.

You felt the smile on your face return and nodded to Shadow. "Thank you. I really appreciate it." You gave a happy sigh and leaned a bit closer to Shadow. "But you know what else I'd appreciate?"

"What?" he asked quietly.

"Breakfast. You said it was a 2-hour walk from here so I'll be _starving_ by the time we get there. You've been warned."

Shadow drew a sigh and shook his head. "I should have known. Follow me".

And so you did. The walk felt a bit gruelling, but that was only because it was so far and you were running on fumes by that point. After only 45 minutes, you were already cranky from hunger.

"Well, we would be there right now if we were running," Shadow said after a few complaints from you.

"Oh, you know I can't run that well," you grumbled.

"Well then. We should use Chaos Control and get there instantly," suggested Shadow.

"But warping totally kills me. You want me to throw up right before breakfast?" you whined.

"You probably won't be sick if there's nothing in your stomach".

"No way! I get worse when there's nothing at all in me. Besides, I hate warping!"

"And I hate listening to you complain, so let's go".

"No!" you said defiantly as Shadow pulled out the blue Chaos Emerald.

"I'll leave without you then," he threatened.

"You wouldn't."

"Watch me."

You nervously watched him bring the Chaos Emerald up in the air with his left hand. He yelled the word "Chaos" and looked at you while holding out his right hand. The look on his face screamed determination . . . the determination he needed to make you crack.

Finally, you conceded. You growled in defeat and angrily took his hand, all the while giving him an almost malicious look. You clearly needed food in you soon; you were being far too crabby and bitter towards him. Regardless of your expression, Shadow yelled "control" and the two of you were hurdled through time and space once more. When you finally hit ground again, you were as disoriented and dizzy as usual. Shadow still had a firm grasp on you so you didn't topple over, but you were sure you were going to be sick this time. Luckily for you and Shadow's shoes, the feeling subsided after a few moments and Shadow released you.

"Argh! I_ hate_ warping!" you complained. "Now, where's a good breakfast restaurant?"

"How can you go from feeling so nauseous to feeling so hungry so quickly?" Shadow asked, ignoring your complaints.

"I don't want questions. I want food, Shadow," you murmured.

"Clearly, you're dysfunctional before breakfast."

"Ya think?"

Miraculously, Shadow put up with all of your whining and the two of you managed to get into a place to eat. It was a light and airy kind of place, full of big windows that let the sun shine in to its fullest capability. The smell of bacon, eggs, waffles and coffee wafted through the entire place, making you even hungrier. The two of you easily found a table and quickly ordered. You appreciated breakfast restaurants because of how much faster the food came in comparison to places that served dinners since breakfast was generally faster and easier to make. True to your research, the food came shortly after you ordered it and you had no problem digging in.

"Lorraine," Shadow said as you were about a third though your plate.

"Yes? What is it?" you ask after swallowing a mouthful of toast.

"Are there any Chaos Emeralds around? Can you sense anything here?"

"Oh yeah!" you said, putting down your toast and devoting your attention to Shadow. "I Guess I haven't tried sensing them for the past hour. Hang on a sec."

You closed you eyes and focused hard on the shards and Chaos Emeralds. You knew that, although you moved, you would still need to focus incredibly hard to find a signal. You sat there until you could feel the presence of the Master Emerald. You opened your eyes and smiled to Shadow.

"Well? What is it?" he asked.

"I'm getting a signal from the Master Emerald, but it's the only thing even remotely close. I'm sorry."

"Well, it's better for us to at least be moving as opposed to sitting around doing nothing. We'll go after it after we're finished here."

You nodded in approval and went back to filling your stomach with breakfast.

Meanwhile, a fully-rested and determined red echidna was on the prowl for Master Emerald shards. He was up quite early and had already found three more shards. As he was just about to acquire a fourth shard, he heard a familiar sound in the sky.

"Ugh, I don't have time for this," he mumbled in annoyance without even looking up. He ignored the approaching hum and continued digging for the shard. When he officially had his twelfth shard in his possession, he drew a sigh as the hum was joined by a skidding sound nearby. He spun around and watched as Tails landed his Tornado 2.

"Knuckles! I'm glad I found you! Do you still want to help Sonic and me go after Eggman?" Tails asked after turning off his plane.

Knuckles thought for a moment. He couldn't sense anymore shards and he knew he had a little over half the Master Emerald. He also knew that you were also looking for the shards and wondered if you had the other half. Even if you didn't have half, he determined, it would still be in his best interest to find the shards you _did _have and get them back.

"I don't have time to go after Eggman right now. I need to go after somethin' else," Knuckles finally decided.

"Some_thing_ or some_one_?" Sonic asked, hopping out from the back of the plane.

Knuckles paused before replying: "a bit of both."

"Does Rouge have some of your Master Emerald or something?" Sonic asked.

Knuckles shook his head.

"Oh, wait wait. I know now. You're looking for _Lorr_, aren't you?" Sonic teased.

"Oh, it's not like that. She has half of my Emerald," Knuckles replied, a little flustered.

"If you say so. Anyway, did you ever think that she's with Shadow, looking for Chaos Emeralds, so we'll probably run into them going after Eggman?"

No, Knuckles hadn't thought of that. Once he had though, he was on the plane with Sonic and Tails on their way towards where Tails assumed Eggman was.

By the time Knuckles made up his mind to go with Sonic and Tails, you and Shadow were on their way to your ninth Master Emerald Shard. Although you knew that you had about half the Master Emerald, what you didn't know was that, between you and Knuckles, the next shard was the final piece of a very difficult puzzle.


	24. Chapter 24

You continued walking with Shadow deeper into the city under the warm morning sun as the signal from the Master Emerald shard got stronger and stronger with each passing minute. After you were a good distance from where you had breakfast, the two of you ended up in the already busy mall district.

"Try not to get lost in here," Shadow said while turning to you.

"Hey, I know where I'm going. You'll have to be the one not to get lost", you said playfully. He smiled your way briefly and the two of you made your way through the crowd.

You tried sticking close to Shadow, but as you made your way deeper and deeper into the mall district, the crowd became even denser. Because of your short stature, you were nearly trampled more than once and you couldn't see over the human heads to figure out where you were headed. Soon, through all the pushing and shoving, your line of sight wish Shadow was completely severed.

"Darn," you said as you looked around frantically for the black hedgehog. Looking didn't really help much since all you could see for the most part were the waistlines of the people crowded around you as you were squeezed towards the sensation of the shard. You jumped a bit when you suddenly felt a hand on your shoulder.

"I told you not to get lost," he said, sliding his hand down your arm and grabbing onto your forearm. Though the initial startled feeling was gone, the lingering sensation of his touch still surprised you. You turned to him but said nothing. Eventually, you turned away and simply led the way through the crowd towards the sensation of the shard. The crowd began thinning as you approached a store that didn't seem as busy as some of the other ones.

"I think it's in here," you said, stopping in front of a jewelery store. It was then that you ran into a familiar face.

"Oh, hey! It's you again!" said the overly cheerful pink hedgehog, Amy you remembered from Station Square. She was with a young-looking rabbit girl, a neutral chao with a red bow tie and several shopping bags. "But, weren't you with Knuckles last time?"

She was right. The last time you say her, you were on the hunt for the shards with Knuckles on one of the most fun days of your life.

"Yeah," you said a bit sadly as you recalled your adventures from a couple of days ago.

"Hello, Mr. Shadow. What's your friend's name?" asked the girl rabbit politely in a high-pitched voice. Shadow quickly let go of your arm once he'd been addressed.

"I'm Lorr," you answered in the place of Shadow.

"My name is Cream and this is my dear friend Cheese. Nice to meet you, Lorr," she smiled while giving a slight curtsy. You could already tell she was a terribly polite girl.

"You know, I was surprised to see you with Knuckles, but I'm _really _surprised to see you with someone like Shadow! Did you break up with Knuckles or something?" Amy asked, hungry for gossip.

"B-break up? I was never . . ."

"You weren't? But I saw you two! You walked away together and even went to Twinkle Park. Couples even get in for free! Besides, Knuckles isn't really the kind of guy who hangs around girls."

You knew her latest statements were true, but the thought of Amy pairing you and Knuckles up in her mind still had you a bit too flustered to agree.

"Well, what about now? You're with Shadow, right?"

"I . . . can't say I am."

"Oh come _on!_ I saw you practically holding hands a few seconds ago," she pouted, refusing to believe she was wrong.

"Come on, Lorraine. Arguing here is a waste of time and we have Chaos Emeralds to find", Shadow said, nudging your back.

"R-right. Excuse us." You appreciated Shadow's excuse to end the uncomfortable conversation.

"Chaos Emeralds?' Cream piped up. She sounded like she had some information to share.

You turned back towards the girl. "Yes. Do you know where they are?"

"Umm, actually, I think I may know where one is. Maybe. I remember when I was up looking at the turtles in the lagoon with my mother and Cheese, I saw something red and very, very pretty in the bottom of the water. I think it was a Chaos Emerald, but I'm not entirely sure. It was pretty far down. Does that help?"

You looked at Shadow. "It wouldn't hurt to look, right?"

"I suppose not."

"Great. Thanks a lot, Cream!"

"You're welcome, Miss Lorr."

You gave a quick chuckle, said your goodbyes and walked into the jewelery store where the sensation of the shard was coming from.

"May I help you?" a lanky human asked you as you waltzed through the door. You said nothing as you looked around the store for any sign of the shard. The majority of the jewels in the store looked pretty real and expensive, but upon closer examination, you found out that they were just expensive.

_It's all a bunch of overpriced crap . . ._

"Lorraine," Shadow called as you looked at some phony ruby earrings, "isn't that what you're after?" You watched him point over to the display in front of the clerk, displaying the only true gem in the entire store. You nodded and strode over to the display. The Master Emerald shard was attached to a surprisingly nice necklace. It was a tad gaudy and a very disrespectful use of the Master Emerald, but you had to admit that it didn't look half bad.

"Oh, this little beauty? You have excellent taste, my friends," said the clerk. "The main attraction to this piece used to be one of _these _simple charms, but when I found a glowing jewel in my backyard the other day, I couldn't resist!" He held up a green little, green, heart-shaped pendant and smiled at the two of you.

While he waved the little pendant in your face as if to compare it to the grandeur of the glowing gem in the necklace, Shadow read the price tag of the piece. At first he was silent. Finally, he spoke:

"For this price, the pendant had better come with it".

The clerk smiled. "Fine, whatever. That jewel increased the value of this piece _tenfold_!"

He tossed the pendant and Shadow caught it, all while you paid the staggering fee for the shard.

"It, worth it, it's worth it, it's worth it," you chanted under your breath as you tried to keep your rage under control. You knew you were being robbed blind, but there was nothing you could do to avoid it without robbing _him_ . . . and possibly smashing his face in for trying to rip you off.

You left the store and made your way through the crowd once more. When you were finally more or less alone and without fear of being trampled, you pulled the necklace out of its bag and looked at it. As you examined the accessory in your hand, you heard Shadow pipe up.

"So . . ." Shadow began.

"Yes?"

"Are you going to . . . wear it? Or perhaps you plan to stuff it into your pocket like the rest of them . . ."

"I . . . I guess I _should_ wear it, shouldn't I? It would be a bit of a waste to just tote it around for a while." And with that, you slipped it around your would-be neck and clasped the ends together. "How does it look?"

"Good, I suppose. I'm not much of a judge, but it does match your cuffs at the very least."

You smiled. Maybe it wasn't such a huge waste of money after all. You were about to say something, but a dull hum in the distance caught your attention.

"Do you hear that?" you asked.

"Yes," he replied, looking up into the sky. "Up there." He pointed to the sky where a large but familiar vehicle soared through the air.

"Is that Eggman again?" you wondered aloud.

Shadow nodded. "Let's hurry."

"W-wait!" You closed your eyes and focused on the machine, hoping your hunch was right. "I think . . . yes, I'm sure of it. Shadow, he has a Chaos Emerald!" Your eyes snapped open and you looked at him expectantly.

"He's either coming after us or he's going after the last Chaos Emerald. Either way, we need to get moving. Let's go".

And with that, the two of you sped off in the direction of the dry lagoon Cream spoke of, hoping that the child was accurate. Time was of the essence and you had no time to be making detours of this magnitude.


	25. Chapter 25

"Sonic!" Tails yelled, "I got a signal!"

"Good job, Tails! Let's hunt 'em down!"

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were on the hunt for Dr. Eggman and finally received the lead they needed. Tails was excited, Sonic was eager and Knuckles was focusing on something entirely different.

_I need to find her and get back my Master Emerald,_ he thought, focused on his goal of returning the Master Emerald to its home. His focused mind slowly became more and more clouded as he thought about how he had enjoyed his time with you when you were with him. Finally, he shook his head; he was starting to get a headache from over thinking. He closed his eyes and tried clearing his mind by trying to focus on the shards of the Master Emerald as well as the Chaos Emeralds since he knew both would lead to you. Nearby, he could sense a lone Chaos Emerald. More importantly, however, was the massive signal he was receiving that was moving incredibly fast. Not only was it moving fast, it was moving towards the lone Chaos Emerald . . . and towards Knuckles himself.

_That _has_ to be them,_ he thought. Then, he stood up.

"Knuckles, what are you doing?" Tails asked, looking back towards him.

"I'll see you guys later. I have to go save my Emerald." And with that, Knuckles hopped out of the plane and began gliding towards his destination.

Elsewhere, as Knuckles had assumed, you and Shadow were running towards the Dry Lagoon and the Chaos Emerald. Actually, only Shadow was running; you were being dragged away by the hasty hedgehog. You initially started running about a minute ago but that was far too slow for Shadow, who swiftly grabbed your wrist and went at what you assumed was full force, leaving you suspended in the air from the intense speed. Your wrist was beginning to throb from the strain.

"Sh-Shadow," you yelled, "You're hurting me!"

You watched him glance back in your direction and, before you knew it even happened, he spun around, locking his right arm under your knees and his left one behind your back. In less than a second, he had you in the incredibly appropriate princess carry. It was significantly more comfortable, but the speed at which Shadow was racing limited the comfort. You could feel his body twist and turn to maintain balance as he glided across the hills, which you assumed was a lot harder without being able to use his arms very well as counter-weights. He navigated through bumps and trees as if he were skating on smooth, flat ice. It was a strange feeling, but you imagined that it would feel stranger to actually use shoes like that as opposed to being the passenger. You clung to him a bit, afraid to fall. As you looked at him however, you could tell that wasn't going to happen. Perhaps it was his skill and finesse; perhaps it was his look of determination. Whatever it was, you could feel that it was going to be okay.

"Are you alright now?" he asked, returning your gaze.

"Yeah," you confirmed.

"It's not too far. We'll be there soon at this pace."

True to his word, within a couple of minutes, you were beginning to feel the presence of the Chaos Emerald. Finally, when there was no sign of Eggman behind you, Shadow stopped. You looked around at your peculiar surroundings. It was sandy and much like a desert, but also had flourishing greenery. The gorgeous, pristine water in the oasis in front of you was the obvious source of the plants, but you still found it quite interesting and beautiful.

"Isn't it amazing, Shadow?" you asked, smiling your surroundings.

"Isn't what amazing?" he asked back while he gently put you down.

"How two very different biomes can be together to create something as amazing as this? A dusty dry desert and lush vegetation brought together by something as pure and simple as water." You turned back towards Shadow with the grin still spread across your face. "Amazing."

"I suppose it is," he replied, looking at you intently. It had been a while since you saw that expression on his face. It was the same strange expression he had yesterday at breakfast. He stayed like that in silence for a moment. Finally, he gave a quick blink and fixed his gaze on the oasis as he spoke again: "We should hurry and get that Chaos Emerald before the Doctor catches up with us."

You weren't sure what had just happened, but you nodded in agreement at his suggestion. "I'll just jump in and get it. It shouldn't be terribly difficult if Cream could see it from the surface."

"Alright," Shadow said, "then in that case, I'll keep an eye out for the Doctor."

You hurried over towards the edge of the pool of water. You could see fish and giant turtles, but no Chaos Emerald. You closed your eyes and tried sensing it. It was definitely in the water, but you would definitely need to go looking down there past the wildlife and plant life in order to pinpoint it. You had no problem with going swimming though; you could swim just fine. You didn't really feel like getting your clothes all wet though and wished you had a bathing suit or something. You had no intentions whatsoever of going skinny dipping and scoffed aloud at the brief thought. You finally compromised by kicking off your sandals and stepping into the water.

_It's a warm day anyway. I'll dry out soon enough._

The water not only looked gorgeous, it also felt gorgeous. It was lukewarm. How perfect. You quickly hopped in and began your search.

Meanwhile, Shadow stayed on land. He couldn't see or hear Eggman yet, but he remained vigilant. He eventually did spot something in the sky, but it certainly wasn't the Doctor. He watched Knuckles land several yards away and approach at a hurried pace.

"Shadow!" yelled the angry echidna, "where is she?"

Shadow crossed his arms. "You mean Lorraine?"

"Of_ course _I mean Lorr! Where is she?" he repeated. "I _know _she has my Emerald!"

Shadow said nothing, but simply leered at Knuckles, trying to hide his displeasure as best he could.

"Why is she collecting them? What's she planning to do with the shards?"

Shadow, remembering Lorr's wish of being the one to tell Knuckles why she was collecting them, continued to remain silent.

" . . . Fine then. Don't tell me. I'll find her myself and take it back by any means necessary".

He couldn't hold it in any longer. He had to say something. "Are you stupid?" Shadow asked Knuckles. "You're seriously planning on fighting her for those shards?"

Knuckles growled at the questions. "Yeah, I am! So what?"

Shadow was in disbelief. _I thought she was with him for the past little while. She seemed so keen on helping and impressing him, but why is he so bent on fighting her? Is he completely ignorant of her feelings or is he taking her for granted? _

"Look, Knuckles," Shadow frowned, "I'm not sure what your problem is, but she's working with me and I won't let you hurt her."

Knuckles scoffed. He looked over to the pool of water when he heard you come up for air. "Stay out of this, Shadow", he ordered, walking towards the water. "This is between me and her!" And with that, he hopped in the water, eager to find you.

The water was so clear that Shadow remained on land and kept a careful eye on both of you in the water. It was reasonably deep, so the two of you were mere blotches in the water. Nonetheless, he watched protectively. He pulled out a Chaos Emerald, ready to neutralize the new threat at any moment. As he focused on the blurry silhouettes below him, his ears twitched as a distant hum began to enter his ears. Eggman was drawing near.

Underwater was a slightly different story. Knuckles heard nothing and even had a plain as day view of you. He watched you glide through the water one stroke at a time as you looked for the Emerald. He saw your hair dance around your face and your dress float around your thighs. At the moment, you weren't paying any attention to him, but he couldn't pay more attention to you. And then it hit him again. All the wonderful memories he'd already had with you came rushing back. He remembered something else very important too: girls made him nervous. He felt his face grow so warm he thought the water around him might have been evaporating. His pulse quickened and his breathing became irregular. Unfortunately for him, there isn't much breathing to be done underwater. In his panic attack, he had swallowed a good mouthful of water.

About twenty feet away, completely oblivious to the drowning echidna behind you, you were having a bit of trouble finding the last Chaos Emerald. It was as if it were moving. You decided to stop for a second and try sensing it again. You closed your eyes and focused.

_Wait, what? What's that sensation?_ You spun around and saw the cause of the feeling: Knuckles and his half of the Master Emerald. Your eyes lit up at the sight of him, but then your stomach sunk when you noticed he was struggling in the water. You paddled over to him quickly, temporarily abandoning your search of the Chaos Emerald. You heaved him onto the shore and he proceeded to cough up water. You watched over him cautiously for a moment when you feel something warm touch your arm. It was Shadow's hand. He gave a light tug on your arm that caused you to turn and face him.

"Lorraine," he said, "please be careful. He wishes to fight you for the shards you've collected."

"What?" you yelled. "_Fight _me for them? After all I've done to get them for him?"

Knuckles was so busy coughing up water that he couldn't speak. He could hear a little of what you said though.

Your face grew sour. Your throat began aching like it always did when you were holding back tears. You felt so betrayed. You worked hard trying to secure the shards for him and in the end he didn't even trust you enough with them. You looked down at your bare feet, unsure of how to feel. You were sad, of course, but incredibly angry_. _

_Is he being a good guardian or a horrible friend?_

Shadow stood there just looking at you solemnly, unsure of what to say. You walked past the silent hedgehog over to your sandals. You slid them onto your feet once more, not making eye contact with either Shadow or Knuckles. Hoping the mundane task would keep you occupied long enough for the feeling to go away, you did it slowly in an almost zombie-like fashion. All the while, nobody said a word. Even Knuckles, who was coughing up a few good mouthfuls of water a moment ago was suddenly quiet.

Suddenly, screams from above broke the awkward silence. Shadow's gaze moved upwards towards the sky. Heading straight for your group was the source of those screams; The Tornado 2 was falling from its flight path and was on a crash course for Dry Lagoon.


	26. Chapter 26

"Watch out!" Shadow yelled as the plane came crashing down a few meters from you. The impact knocked you onto your still-bruised derrière. Luckily, the sandy nature of the area cushioned not only your fall, but Sonic and Tails' fall too.

"Are you alright?" Shadow asked, standing above you. He offered his hand to help you up, which you, as usual, accepted.

"Don't worry about me," told him, "we have to make sure Sonic and Tails are alright". Shadow gave a sharp nod and the two of you dashed over to the pair.

Considering the impact, the plane was in marvellous shape; it didn't explode or have giant pieces of itself skewed across the lagoon. In fact, it looked like the sand left it in such good shape that it may be able to fly again. Sonic and Tails were in a very similar state. They looked a bit shaken, but relatively unharmed. Knuckles looked a bit more shaken up than they did however, because of how close the plane came to landing on him. You breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oww. What happened out there, Tails?" Sonic asked his young friend as he climbed out of the Tornado.

"I-I'm not entirely sure. I was flying as usual when all of a sudden, my body . . . wasn't mine anymore."

"What do you mean?" you asked, curious to know what happened yourself.

"Well, I couldn't control my body. My arms moved by themselves and so did my legs. It . . . it wasn't mind control or anything though because I could still see and hear everything and think clearly. It just kinda felt like I was fighting someone for control of my body. I could hear them. I could hear a woman's voice in my head, telling me 'not to meddle' and pushing my consciousness to the side to take my body for themselves. It was kind of scary. I watched myself steer away from Eggman's ship and then turn the engine off. I tried not to of course, but it was a really strong force that made me do it. When I finally recovered my motor controls, I couldn't restart the plane in time and . . . well . . ."

Tails' recollection of the events ended as soon as a familiar dull roar began to fill your ears once more and drown out the young boy's story. It was Eggman.

"He's probably after the Chaos Emeralds!" Sonic yelled. "Did you guys find them all?"

You shook your head. "There's still one in the water that I didn't get to and Eggman has one too."

"Dang," said Sonic. "Well, we'll just have to see what happens then."

You watched as Eggman's large flying vehicle flew overhead. It kicked up quite the sandstorm that quickly blinded you. The engine was so powerful at this range that you were afraid you might just blow away like the sand. You soon felt something warm grab your hand and pull you away. After a couple of seconds, you felt as though you were behind some sort of shelter. You coughed to clear your lungs and felt your eyes water to flush out the sand. When you could see again, you noticed you were hiding behind the Tornado along with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Shadow.

"What's he doing?" Sonic asked Tails while Tails was crawling into his cockpit. Finally, when Tails managed to position himself behind the glass, safe from the sand, he squinted out towards the water.

"It's hard to tell, but I think he's . . . he's got a giant turtle!"

"And?" Asked Sonic.

"And . . . he's shaking it? Oh! It spat out the red Chaos Emerald!"

_So _that's_ why I couldn't find it, _you thought to yourself._ But how did he know it was in a turtle?_

A giant splash followed, which you assumed was the large turtle being dropped back into its home.

"Woah! He's flying away!" yelled Tails.

"I'll get them," Shadow stated calmly. "I can teleport up to his ship". He pulled out the same blue Chaos Emerald he always did.

"Shadow?" you said.

"Yes?"

"I'm going too. I'll help you locate them".

"I thought you didn't like using Chaos Control."

"I don't, but this is more important".

Shadow looked at you for a moment and then nodded. You smiled in return.

"Good luck, guys," Sonic grinned. "We're counting on you!"

And with that, Shadow grabbed your wrist, yelled Chaos control and the two of you hurdled through time and space once more.

As the sandstorm was beginning to die, Knuckles looked up towards the large airship which was flying almost directly upward to get out of the boxed in lagoon. Though he had been silent for the past little while, he had been thinking. He had been thinking a lot.

"_All that she's done for me"? Did she mean she was collecting the shards . . . for me?_

His mind wandered back to thoughts of a few days ago when he shattered the Master Emerald. He remembered how badly you flipped out when the island sank and how you had offered to help him collect the shards. He remembered that you said you would help yesterday in the park as well as you were leaving with Shadow.

_I guess maybe she kept her word on that._

He looked down at the ground. He felt guilt wash over him as he recalled how, a few minutes ago, he was planning to beat you down until you relinquished the shards.

"Hey, Knuckles. Are you okay?" Sonic asked him when he noticed how down Knuckles looked.

"Yeah," he lied. He didn't really feel like telling Sonic about his troubles.

"Well, okay. We should be ready for when they get back though. There's no telling what Eggman's up to! Tails!"

"Yes, Sonic?"

"Can you fix the plane?"

"Already on it! It should only take a few minutes; it's not damaged too badly".

"Good then! Round three's about to start!"

Knuckles drew a sigh at Sonic's cheesiness and went back to looking to the sky for any sign of your return.


	27. Chapter 27

On Eggman's ship, the infiltration was a success. After you got over your usual dizziness and nausea, the two of you proceeded to head towards the main control deck undetected. When you arrived, you were surprised and appalled to find a familiar face with Eggman.

"Alright, so that's two Chaos Emeralds. And you say that if we get the other 5, they'll lead us there?" asked the treasure hunter, Rouge.

"Yes, yes. Just like she told me before: We must climb the islands to the heavens," explained Eggman. "Since they're all incredibly protected, you need to find a Master gem and use that to guide you. However, since that Knucklehead broke the Master Emerald again, we need an alternative method. Luckily, Claire said that the Chaos Emeralds, when brought together, work just fine too. Their signal's actually a lot weaker than the Master Emerald's though so it may take a bit longer, but it should still work."

"Claire . . .?" you whisper. That name seemed familiar to you.

"Well, if you say so. I still don't understand this 'Claire' girl, but if going through the trouble of finding the Chaos Emeralds will net me that big, beautiful Master Diamond, then just leave it to me," winked Rouge.

"Don't believe in what you can't see? As a man of science, I can understand this all seems a tad farfetched. A shame, considering the circumstances however," he sighed. "And speaking of believing in things you can't see, my little dybbuk friend tells me that the one who possesses the rest of the Chaos Emerald is right here!"

Dr. Eggman pointed a finger in your direction and filled you with panic. Shadow looked a bit surprised, but still quite collected.

"I'll just have to call up some of my dear robots! Hmm? Oh, you'll take care of them, Claire? Very well."

"Who's Claire?" you yell at him. Suddenly, as if to answer your question, Shadow gave a short gasp and clenched his head. You stepped back from him for a moment, startled.

"Sh-Shadow?"

He looked at you, but his eyes told you it wasn't really him. He laughed a laugh that wasn't his and held out the blue Chaos Emerald.

"Rouge, you lackey, make yourself useful and hold these for me, will you dear?" Shadow said, tossing her the Emerald.

"What? Dumb lackey? You!" Uttered Rouge, a bit dumbfounded. She still managed to catch the Chaos Emerald though.

"Me? Oh, you believe in me NOW, do you?" cackled the voice inside Shadow.

"You're . . . Claire?" you asked.

"Why, yes I am! And from what I hear, you must be Lorraine, yes?" Claire asked while she continued tossing Chaos Emeralds at Rouge. She looked you up and down momentarily. "Oh, now don't tell me you're the same Lorraine from Thunder Island?"

You nodded, still stunned and confused about what was going on.

"Princess! It's been so long!" She chirped. "Don't worry though; I'll make everything right. I'll make everything the way it should've been in the first place. I promise."

At this point, you were beyond confused.

_Okay, what? So, Rouge is working with Eggman, I get that. But . . . Claire? Dybbuk? Princess? Does she know me somehow? And what the heck's a dybbuk?_

Once Claire had stripped Shadow of any and all Chaos Emeralds, she sighed. "Well, as _adorable_ as this body is, Dr. Eggman is my true host and thus I must return to him. Oh, a shame, a shame." From Shadow's mouth came an incredibly girly squeal as Claire began caressing his face with his own hands in excitement. "I wish I could stay in here forever, but alas, I grow weaker by the second. I can feel him trying to drive me out, so I surely cannot lie dormant inside of him. But umm, you're kind of important Princess, so could you just uh. . . stay here for a bit? I'll be right back."

You watched, dumbfounded, as Claire proceeded to walk Shadow's body towards the escape hatch. She pulled the relatively heavy handle with ease with Shadow's arms.

"No! Wait!" yelled Rouge, clearly aware of the situation now.

"Be quiet, lackey girl! I know what I'm doing and everything will be fine!"

"What are you . . ." you began to ask. Before you finished, however, you knew what she was doing. You ran over to Shadow, but it was too late; Claire's spirit had forced him out of she ship.

"Oh, that's much better," Eggman squeaked. Had you time to think, you probably would have realized that it was Claire in Eggman's body who said that, but you had no time to think. Instinctively, you hopped out of the ship after Shadow.

"Yahhhhh!" you screamed, only just realizing what you did. The gesture was nice, heroic and incomprehensibly foolish.

Shadow, regaining his motor skills, looked up at the source of the scream. Even in such a dire situation, he kept a more or less level head and knew what to do. He laid down flat, increasing his air resistance until he began to fall slower than you. Finally, you caught up to him and he grabbed your wrists. By this point, you were no longer screaming; you were sobbing uncontrollably and very close to throwing up. In your mind, visions of your home sinking to the ocean came flooding back again. You could hear the screams of your family and friends as your world came crashing down. But then, to your surprise, something began to drown the screams in your head.

"Lorraine! Lorraine! Listen to me!" Though your eyes were tightly shut, you recognized Shadow's grasp and voice. "Lorraine! Pay attention! If you just lay flat in the air, we'll be alright."

You heard him, but were beyond petrified for the moment and retained a pose much closer to the foetal position than laying flat in the air. You felt Shadow's grip on your wrists disappear only for his grip to reappear on your face.

"Don't focus on the ground and don't focus on falling. Focus on me and listen to what I'm saying! Lay flat in the air as if you were gliding!"

"Gliding?" What Shadow had just said sparked a bit of sense in you.

_Why am I afraid of falling if I can glide? The only difference is that I'm used to gliding the second I push off from land and don't feel this gut-wrenching freefall._

Alas, irrational fears are still fears and, although you made a great step towards conquering your phobia, it wasn't happening today; that would be far too convenient. You opened your eyes and looked at Shadow. He had general concern written on his face. You wished you could remedy that, but you couldn't; you just weren't strong enough mentally. You were still frozen in fear, cursing yourself in your mind for being so weak and illogical. The flashbacks returned and you resumed crying.

Shadow's gaze shifted downward towards the ground. When he looked back at you, he had a slightly relieved smile on his face. He abandoned his previous position and stood upright in the air once more. He uttered simply "nevermind, just hold your breath," released your face and grabbed onto your wrists again.

"Wait, wha-?" your question was cut short by the sudden impact. It wasn't what you were expecting, however and it finally occurred to you why Shadow had told you to hold your breath. Claire was right about everything being fine; you landed not in the sand but in the water, narrowly missing trees, plants and giant tortoises. Hitting the water knocked the wind out of you however, and you felt Shadow – who still had a hold of you – drag you up from the depths.

"Shadow! Lorr! Are you alright?" asked Tails once the two of you were safely on land. You laid there in the sand, coughing and hyperventilating, trying to gain composure. You were soaked from head to toe once again, making the tears that were still flowing from your eyes practically invisible.

"We're fine," Shadow said simply.

"She doesn't look fine," Sonic said, frowning.

"I always thought echidnas could swim. You're both proving me very wrong today," Shadow commented, shaking his head. Knuckles gave him a bit of a look, but remained silent.

When your breathing began to stabilize, you finally found your voice and sat up. "I . . . I'm sorry, Shadow. I . . . I just . . . what you said made sense but . . ."

"It's not important right now, Lorraine," Shadow said, cutting you off. You frowned and looked away from him. You definitely felt as if you let him down and thus returned to crying silently.

"So uh, what happened up there anyway?" Sonic asked after a few moments, trying to cut some of the tension and find some answers.

You gave a sniffle, whipped your eyes and looked up at him as thought back to a few minutes earlier. "It was strange," you told him, "it was very strange. Do you know what a dybbuk is?"

"No. What is it?"

"I can explain," said Tails. "A dybbuk is basically a negative spirit that wants to accomplish something it couldn't do when it was alive, and to do so, it attaches itself to someone still living. Once it's done its goal, it leaves the host body."

"So it's pretty much just a ghost who possesses people?" Sonic asked.

"Yep."

You saw Knuckles' facial expression change at the mention of a ghost and wondered if he were afraid of them. You put that thought aside for the time being and continued to explain what happened on the ship. "Well, Eggman said that he had a little dybbuk friend with him named Claire and she possessed Shadow when we were on the ship. Her name sounds kind of familiar . . ."

"Wait, is that what happened to Tails too?" Sonic asked.

Shadow shrugged. "From what Tails explained earlier, I believe so". He then mumbled something about feeling violated.

"But wait," Tails said, clearly confused about something, "I've only heard of a dybbuk possessing _one_ person, not three".

"I believe she mentioned that the doctor was her 'true host', so I assume that she can't stay out of him for long," Shadow clarified.

"Hmm. She must be quite a powerful spirit to be able to do all that," commented Tails.

"Nevermind that right now. There's something else I need to say about Eggman. The reason he wanted the Chaos Emeralds is so he could get the Master Gems," you announced.

"What?" asked Sonic.

You drew a sigh; it looked like you were going to have to explain the seven islands in the sky _again_ this week. Although you knew you probably shouldn't be telling this so them, you trusted them and knew they weren't a threat to your kind. No, they were heroes that you knew you could put your faith into. After a brief summary of everything you already told Knuckles a few days ago, you also explained how Eggman plans to use the Chaos Emeralds to find them.

"So lemme get this straight," Sonic said, "Eggman's using the Chaos Emeralds as a radar to find a bunch of hidden islands like Angel Island, he's probably going to use the gems on the islands to take over the world and Lorr's the _princess _of one of the islands?"

"Pretty much," you agreed, nodding.

"Knuckles, did you know this?" he asked, more about you being a princess than the fact that there were seven islands. You weren't sure if it was because he was embarrassed about not knowing all this until recently or if he just didn't know what to say about this whole thing, but Knuckles remained silent.

"So, is there any way we can find the islands?" Tails asked.

You smiled. "Yes, there is. All we need is the Master Emerald. Hopefully, we have it all now." You produced roughly half of the Master Emerald, even pulling out the shard in the incredibly expensive necklace you had to pay for not long ago, and handed them to Knuckles. "I'm . . . I'm still mad at you for not trusting me," you said, dropping your gaze towards your shoes, "but here. Please restore the Master Emerald so we may continue."

He looked at you for a bit without saying or doing anything. Finally, he produced the other half or so of the Master Emerald. While putting the pieces back together and specifically avoiding eye contact with you, he tried speaking. "Lorr, I . . ." He drew a sigh, as if unsure of what to say and resumed silence. When he finished restoring the Master Emerald to its previous grandeur, he took a step back. "Do what you need to do with it then".

The simple gesture made a grin slowly spread across your face.

_Maybe he's beginning to trust me after all._

You closed your eyes and placed your hands on the Master Emerald and concentrated hard on trying to find the nearest island. After a minute or so, without opening your eyes, you asked: "Tails, is your plane ready to go?"

"Y-yeah! It wasn't too bad so it's all repaired."

"Good, because we need to hurry if we want to get there before Eggman. We have a better signal than him, but we're several minutes behind."

The five of you climbed into the tornado, somehow all managing to fit. As you were about to take off, Tails and Sonic looked ready for battle, Knuckles still seemed a bit quiet, Shadow looked a bit reluctant about being crammed into a plane and you felt . . . strange. You felt so driven to help these guys even though you met them less than a week ago. Even though you were a bit mad at Knuckles and even if you sensed as though Shadow was a bit mad at you, it didn't seem to matter. It felt nice to be surrounded with others that you could call you friends that you felt unusually fired up.

"Okay!" you yelled while sitting directly behind Tails since you were navigating, "next stop: Gale Island!" The Tornado took off at an impressive speed as you began your ascent to the heavens.


	28. Chapter 28

As the wind continued whipping through your hair while the plane sliced its way through the sky, you focused on your next goal: Gale Island. Your mind was surprisingly clear while you were doing this and your ability to sense was maximized by the use of the Master Emerald. Miles into the sky, you could feel the presence of the Master Topaz. Out in another direction, you could feel the presence of the 7 Chaos Emeralds.

_Oh good. It looks like Eggman's having some trouble picking up the signal so he's just flying blindly, trying to find a sign of the gem. Maybe we'll have time after all,_ you thought with relief.

After several minutes of flying, the island was finally somewhat visible. It was small and obscured by clouds that swirled around the area. The clouds did a great job of cloaking it. So much so, that most people probably would never have seen it even if they were in the air space, but you knew it was there; you could feel it. You guided Tails up towards the island when suddenly, the wind picked up.

"Ah!" yelped Tails while trying to steer towards the mass in the sky. The wind was making it difficult though, as if it was trying to repel the plane. Luckily for the group of you, Tails was a great pilot and the Tornado II was a small but mighty plane. It took a little while to get through the windstorm, but you all eventually landed safely near the edge of the island.

You looked around. The island looked surprisingly calm considering the windstorm that surrounded it. There certainly was a gentle breeze that blew through the place, but nothing like the gale force you passed through moments ago. The more you looked around, the more you liked the look of the island; it was incredibly lush and had the vibe of a very tightly knit community. It just felt so friendly there that you instantly had a good feeling about the place. That good feeling lasted until five lime green echidnas – whom you assumed to be guards – rushed over towards your group.

"Uh oh. I've got a bad feeling about this welcome party," Sonic frowned as they approached.

The aggressive expressions on the guards' faces soon turned to awe as they noticed what your crew had aboard.

"That's the . . . Master Emerald!" one of them said. "But what are you doing here . . .?"

"Go get Grant," an older-looking guard said to one of the younger ones, "this one's a little over our heads." The young one nodded and dashed towards the center of the village. "Now, I'm sure you know you're trespassing," the older guard continued, now addressing your group, "but since you have echidnas and the Master Emerald with you, we'd probably make an exception."

You drew a relieved sigh at the fact they may not attack you now; you didn't really feel like fighting. You looked down the road and noticed that the young guard was on his way back with a young adult male echidna who looked to be just a little bit older than Knuckles.

"Sir, we have a situation . . ." the older guard said to the new arrival.

"I can see! Well, this was unexpected," he said with mild surprise on his face. "Well hello everyone. My name is Grant and I'm the leader of this island and also the guardian of the Master Topaz."

You acknowledged that he did sort of look like a leader, but it almost didn't suit him; though he had a simple, worn jacket and similar gloves and shoes, the coronet atop his head gave away his position in the island's hierarchy, but it clashed so hard with the rest of his casual look that you smirked a bit. The most peculiar thing about Grant, however, was his hair. Though there was indeed a constant breeze on the island, the way his hairstyle twisted and curved towards his right side, it made it look as though his hair was always blowing in the harsh wind. Still, he had such a friendly and caring demeanour that you didn't mind his fashion statement.

"Grant," you said, hopping out of the plane, "we came here to warn you that someone's coming to steal the Master Topaz as well as the other Master Gems. His name is Dr. Eggman and he's on his way now."

"Hmm? Well that's really nice of you. However, I doubt that he'd find us. I mean more than 99% of all living beings on the planet have no idea we even exist, let alone where we are," Grant smiled reassuringly.

"Oh, he knows about you." Sonic said as the rest of the crew climbed out of the plane. "He's flying around right now trying to find you guys with the 7 Chaos Emeralds and his little creepy ghost friend-"

"Dybbuk," Tails corrected.

"Whatever. Anyway, we're here to stop him!"

"Although we are usually a pretty nice community, I'm sure the 62 of us can handle one doctor and his extra spirit," the elder guard spoke up.

"W-what? There are _62_ echidnas here?" Knuckles asked incredulously. Going from thinking he was the last echidna to sitting on an island with over 60 of them left him shocked to say the least.

"Well, 64 if we count you two," Grant clarified. "Speaking of which, where are you both from?"

"I'm the princess from Thunder Island and he's the guardian from Angel Island," you informed him.

"You don't say! That sunk _years_ ago, right?" he said a little surprised. "Princess, where have you been?"

"huh?"

"Well, the reason our population is so high – we usually only have around 50 – well it's because we have some of the survivors from that crash! You didn't really think you were the _only _one who survived that crash, did you?"

You were speechless. You thought you lost everything, but that turned out to only be an illusion. There was hope for Thunder Island yet. "So then . . . my parents . . .?"

"Oh no. The king and queen didn't make it, unfortunately".

Your heart sank again. Still, some survivors were better than nobody.

"What about my clan?" Knuckles piped up.

"Oh, no. You've been the last of the Knuckles clan for ages. Sorry."

Knuckles looked like his heart sunk a bit too.

Grant frowned with sympathy. "I'm sorry I had to tell you all this, guys. I know it's a lot to take in. I mean, you must've both been alone at so young . . . But enough about that for the moment." He turned to his elder guard. "Parry, can you have your guards patrol the parameter and keep a lookout for this . . . Dr. Eggman you said? What a strange name. . ."

Sonic gave a sicker as the guard you assumed was Parry nodded towards his leader and instructed his group to fan out accordingly.

"Now that that's out of the way, I think I should discuss a few more things with you before this attack takes place, alright?" Your group nodded. "Good. Follow me," Grant continued whilst walking towards the center of the city. "First of all, I believe you said that this Doctor has the Chaos Emeralds? Well, those gems are indeed quite dangerous. Nobody knows what they are or where they came from.

"We echidnas learned a long time ago that the God of Destruction protected the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds before your clan did, descendant of Pachacamac,but as for the other Master Gems, it's unknown. Are there more miniature sets of gems called the Chaos Topazes or Chaos Diamonds? We aren't sure, but they certainly haven't been discovered. Are there more Gods of Destructions or similar Gods that protected the other Master Gems before we came along too? Again, we aren't sure. All we know is that we protect them so that they don't fall into the wrong hands and we've stayed hidden for thousands of years to prevent others from knowing we have the gems. When we learned of the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald, we initially thought that our gems could possibly push you all back on your warpath of domination. Before we could though, the God of Destruction took its wrath out on the Knuckles Clan. We feared for ourselves and, instead of keeping the Master Gems as weapons, we began protecting the world and ourselves from the power."

Though you assumed Knuckles already knew that he came from a war-mongering society, you noticed his eye contact with Grant drop and a slight frown spread across his face.

"Right. Now we do know that the Master Emerald has the ability to nullify the power of the Chaos Emeralds. It's mostly a safeguard. We've never studied the Master Emerald too extensively since it's been in your clan's possession for so long so we're not sure what other potential it has. Perhaps you do, but we don't.

"Now, back to the Chaos Emeralds. As you may or may not already know, we echidnas have an incredible link to the Master Gems. However, it seems as though just about anyone can use the Chaos Emeralds as long as one has the mind to do so."

"The . . . mind?" Sonic asked.

"Well, more specifically, will. They can do anything you will for them to do, really. Be it to power technology or power oneself, the possibilities are limitless as long as one believes the Emeralds can do it, one has enough to generate the energy and one puts their will into the action."

"Incredible," Tails said in awe. "I knew they were powerful but that's just amazing!"

"Yes, the power is indeed incredible. Speaking of incredible power, we're here."

Your group stopped in front of the altar to the Master Topaz. It was perched up there, glowing a bight and gentle honey yellow as it refracted the sun's ray in an incredibly beautiful way. You felt the breeze pick up momentarily as you stood there in awe.

"The power of a windstorm . . ." Grant grinned. "I'll continue to be kind and protect this Island and the Master Topaz with that kindness. It also helps that I'm being kind to ones who guard others."

"R-really?" you stutter. "I'm supposed to _love_ one who guards another!"

"Well of course. It links the islands together so –"

"Lord Grant!" Parry yelled, rushing over to the group, "an unusual aircraft has been located nearby in the skies to the South!"

"Eggman!" Sonic exclaimed, clenching his fist.

"Looks like it's time," Grant said, climbing up the altar. "Now, Thunder Island is usually next in line but . . . well . . . anyway, I can locate Lava Island on the off chance Eggman goes there as well. Let's see now . . ." Grant focused for a few seconds with his hand on the Master Topaz and then quickly revealed the direction in which Lava Island was. Clearly, he was much more skilled at being a radar than you were. Everyone made note of the direction of Lava Island.

While this was going on, you heard that same roar of an engine approaching as you did every other time Eggman approached. You looked towards the South where the hum was coming from. Suddenly, a flash of light streaked through the village towards your group. Before you even had time to think about what in the world it was, it crashed into Grant with a violent whooshing sound. You heard him give a startled scream that quickly got cut off. The light, you then realized, was the power of the 7 Chaos Emeralds and a very malevolent spirit. The Emeralds swirled around Grant, engulfing him in an incredible aura. You heard Grant laugh a familiar laugh that you heard earlier today. It made you shudder.

Claire was back and she was stronger than ever.


	29. Chapter 29

Grant floated there just above the ground, engulfed in an intense aura from the Chaos Emeralds. The Chaos Emeralds themselves laid motionless behind the guardian, having completed their job of supercharging both the dybbuk and the young adult echidna. The sheer force of the aura they created was enough to push you back a bit. The power was staggering and, now that Claire had control of it, you were a little afraid.

"And so we meet again. What do you think? Like my new upgrade?" Claire asked from the depths of Grant, giving a quick spin as if to flaunt the newly obtained power as if it were a newly obtained dress.

"What's going on here? What's happened to you, Grant?" the elder guard, Perry, yelled up at the guardian.

"Quiet you! I'm on a retrieval mission!" Grant's gaze shifted to the Master Topaz. "My my my. It's been a while since I saw this beauty." Grant's fingers gently slid across the giant gem admiringly. "And now you're all mine."

You took a step back, unsure of what to do. You glanced beside you to Knuckles expectantly, hoping he had a plan. When you did, however, Knuckles already seemed to be taking some sort of action. You watched him clutch onto the Master Emerald with his eyes close and start muttering something to himself. "The servers are the seven Chaos . . ." he began. The roar of the aura coming from Grant drowned him out a bit, however and your eyes became fixed on Grant once more in terror.

"And what's this? You brought me the Master Emerald as well? I'm touched. Really, I am," the possessed echidna grinned. "So I'd really appreciate if you, Princess, and that red echidna holding the Master Emerald – as well as the Master Emerald itself, of course – could just come with us for safe keeping." Grant pointed to the sky behind him where the massive Eggman aircraft could be seen, ripping through the clouds and coming in for a landing. Grant then begun to float ominously in your direction.

As Grant approached, Knuckles stood his ground, still mumbling. Finally, he spoke up. "I don't think so, Claire. I will protect the Master Emerald with everything I have and you're certainly not taking Lorr either. Master Emerald, stop the Chaos Emeralds!"

And with that, a blinding white light emitted from the Master Emerald. It was brilliant, powerful and exactly what your group needed to turn the tides. Grant gave out a startled gasp as his body was engulfed by the light. When the light faded, you watched Grant fall backwards onto his tailbone, his invincible aura gone.

_I knew that the Master Emerald had the power to neutralize the Chaos Emeralds, but seeing it with my own eyes is still nothing short of spectacular_, you thought as you stood motionless, trying to take in all that just happened.

"No . . . no! Without the power of the Emeralds I . . . I can't keep control of this guardian indefinitely. He's . . . forcing me out of his body with his will, but I . . . I will complete my mission!" Panicking, Grant pulled himself off the ground and with the force that betrayed the gentleness of his previous interaction with the Master Topaz, he ripped the gem from its pedestal. You watched in horror as he did this, knowing what the inevitable reaction of the island would be now that its power source was removed. Finally, the island's position in the sky began to give way, and it, as well as your heart, sank. You latched onto Knuckles' arm tightly as the gut-wrenching freefall began. His presence comforted you slightly, but you were still frozen in place. You heard Shadow, Sonic and Tails give a general gasp of surprise and concern as the island began to plummet. Grant, however, grabbed as many Chaos Emeralds as he could while still toting the massive chunk of Topaz and made a run for it in the direction of the Eggman airship.

"Quick! Get 'em!" Sonic yelled, trying to ignore the fact that the island was sinking and dashed towards the still-possessed guardian.

"Go away you annoying hedgehog! It's not _you_ I want coming with me!" Grant yelled. "Master Topaz, listen to me! Listen to your guardian! Knock this ignorant shrew creature into oblivion!"

As the order left Grant's mouth, the Master Topaz begun to glow in a similar manner as the Master Emerald did but moments ago. Finally, a massive release of energy from the gem resulted in an intense gale force that knocked your entire group – including poor, confused Perry – back about twenty feet. Combined with the fact that you were all still plummeting into the ocean, Grant and his malevolent spirit were able to make their way back to Eggman's ship.

The force ripped your grip away from Knuckles' arm and knocked you backwards into a wall. A sharp pain ran down your spine as you collided with the stone barrier. The pain only intensified as someone even heavier than you collided with your torso, knocking the wind out of your lungs and almost making you throw up. Your vision was blurry and your consciousness was fading.

"Lorr! Are you alright?" Shadow asked. You recognized that it was him that was thrown into you by the wind you also heard a bit of pain in his voice. Was he hurt too?

"Shadow . . . please . . ." you began. Your voice was weak but your tone was desperate. "Please . . . save the island. I . . . I don't want to lose everyone again. . ." You weren't sure what he could do but you knew that you couldn't do anything to stop it; you couldn't do anything all those years ago and you certainly couldn't do anything now, especially in the shape you were in from that little attack. You felt your world slip into darkness as your minor concussion begun to take effect.

Meanwhile, on Eggman's ship, Grant collapsed to the ground as Claire's hold on him finally expired. Claire herself was exhausted; she latched her spirit back into Eggman's body, hardly able to even communicate with him about what happened. Grant laid sprawled on the floor, trying to reattach his mind with his body. His mind was weak from fighting for control for so long, however, and it was taking longer than it took Tails or Shadow earlier that morning.

"Incredible! Is this the Master Topaz that you sent her to get, Dr. Eggman? Oh, it's simply_ marvellous_!" Rouge squealed as she laid eyes on the giant gem. "However, it looks like she lost most of the Chaos Emeralds."

"It doesn't matter," Eggman assured Rouge, "since the Master Topaz will give a better signal than the Chaos Emeralds anyway. Besides, she made sure not to leave _all _of them. Another 'Super Sonic' incident could really be a disaster, after all. I am a tad disappointed that she was unable to capture Knuckles or that other echidna though. Even if she was able to get the Master Emerald and get them off our trail . . ."

_Shut . . . up_, Claire said directly to Eggman's mind, too weak to force his body to say it out loud and confront both if them. _They'll follow._ _They'll follow us and we can take it later. I . . . I need a break now though._

"Alright, alright. You practically left them for death on that sinking island anyway, so we may be able to just fish up the Master Emerald once we're done with the next – "

_No. They will live. All of them. I would not kill my own kind, you heartless doctor. I told you before: I am making the world the way it should be. I will free my people. I will free all of them with the very power that keeps them imprisoned!_

". . . We shall see what happens then," Eggman nodded.

"What are you . . ." Rouge began, still a bit confused as to how their conversations were going since she could only hear one side of it. She suddenly looked down as she heard Grant moan on the floor. His body was almost his again.

"Not to worry Rouge. For now, could you please escort this echidna on the floor to the holding cell?"

Rouge took one last longing glance at the Master Topaz and then helped Grant to his feet and walked him to the back of the ship.

_I don't care what your plans are with these gorgeous gems, Claire, but you won't have to worry about them much longer. Soon they'll all be mine, especially the Master Diamond_, Rouge thought with a smirk. She had very little intention of helping either of them complete their goals; she had other objectives that took a much higher priority than doing something as silly as trying to take over the world.


	30. Chapter 30

"Lorraine. Lorraine," you heard someone say stiffly. The sound was faint at first, as if it were nothing more than a whisper, but you soon came to realize that the voice repeating your name was at a regular volume. You opened your eyes and realized that you were looking up at an unfamiliar green echidna with an air of professionalism.

"Lorraine," he said again "can you think clearly?

"I . . . I think so," you responded.

"Where are we?"

"Gale Island."

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"When's your birthday?"

"December twelfth."

The questions suddenly stopped as a look of uncertainty crossed his face. "Does anyone know if those last two answers are correct? Those are the standard questions, but I'm not terribly familiar with this young lady . . ."

"The answers are indeed correct, Doctor. The princess was born on the twelfth of December fifteen years ago," a pale purple echidna assured him. You glanced over towards her. She looked almost old enough to be your mother. A faint smile spread across your face as you realized that Grant was telling you the truth when he said that some of your clan were indeed on Gale Island.

"Don't move your head," ordered the doctor. "You may have a spinal injury after that impact and we can't be too caref-"

"I'm fine," you interrupted, standing up. This wasn't entirely true; you had quite the headache and you were a little off-balance. Considering the circumstances, however, you didn't have time to wait for your head to feel better. You looked around. Aside from everyone being out of their houses and looking a little shaken, the island sure didn't look like one that had just sunken to the depths of the ocean.

"What in the world . . ?" you thought aloud.

"Oh hey! You're awake!" You spun around to see Sonic. He appeared tired and had a few scratches, but otherwise unharmed. "You were out for a good three or four minutes you know. We were starting to get worried."

"Sonic, how in the world are we alive? Shouldn't the island have sunk?"

"Well, it did. We just . . . made sure it sunk in shallower water."

"How did you . . ?"

"You know that little trick Shadow pulls every so often? Chaos Control? Well, the two of us used the four Chaos Emeralds that Eggman left behind to warp the island near a sandbar." Sonic gestured to the surrounding area. You recognized where they had warped the island; you were close to where Angel Island fell.

You were speechless. Even if your voice _did_work, you didn't know the words that could describe how you felt at that moment anyway. You could feel tears silently roll down your cheeks in joy and relief. They were safe. "Th-thank you. Thank you so much," you finally managed to utter, dropping to your knees in appreciation.

"Hey, I couldn't just let a whole civilization sink, right? Besides, I couldn't have done it without Shadow; he's the expert on Chaos Control. Well speak of the devil . . ."

"Stand up, Lorraine. Bowing like that isn't terribly becoming of a princess." You gazed upward and saw the other hedgehog that saved the island. He held out a helping hand.

"Shadow . . ." you smiled, allowing him to help you up. "You're fantastic. Did you know that?" He simply smirked at the response. Suddenly, just as you were on your feet again, something careened with your backside, making you nearly topple over to your knees once more. Luckily for you, Shadow's presence prevented you from falling. You felt his arms connect with your waist as the unknown force thrust you into him.

"Princess Lorraine! We missed you!" a young, purple echidna girl yelled, grabbing you in a hug.

"And your friends saved us! Wow! Amazing!" another one screeched, latching onto waist. Eventually, you and Shadow were completely encompassed by the excited, chattering locals who wanted a chance to see the princess and the heroes. Sonic wasn't faring much better beside you either. It was an almost unfamiliar sensation for you; you couldn't remember the last time you were caught in a group hug. You looked at Shadow, whom you were also pressed up against. He stood there motionless in the sea of squirming echidnas with an expression of mild annoyance. You couldn't help but laugh. Although he clearly wasn't enjoying the attention, you were. The whole thing gave you a warm, happy feeling.

_What else could be expected from an island of echidnas known for love and kindness? _

You smiled up at the frowning hedgehog in front of you and then addressed the crowd:

"Guys! I'm really happy to see you all, but you're gonna have to let us go," you said warmly. At your command, the posse of purple and green echidnas backed away a bit.

"We're sorry, Princess," one of them said. "It's just that we haven't seen you in a really, really, _really_ long time! And these heroes! I've never seen anything like them before."

"You mean hedgehogs?" you inquired.

"Yeah! I've never seen a hedgehog before!"

"Wow. Hedgehogs are pretty . . ."

"So pretty . . ."

You watched as some of the female echidnas ogled your companions. You weren't quite sure what to say.

"Look guys! This hero doesn't look like an echidna _or_a hedgehog!" another echidna yelled joyously down the street, hugging Tails.

"Th-that's because I'm a fox . . ." Tails chuckled nervously.

"Oh my gosh, you're so _soft,_Mister Fox!"

You stood there silently as you took all of this in. _Have__they__really__never__seen__a__hedgehog__or__a__fox__before?__Are__they__really__so__isolated__on__this__island__that__they__have__no__experience__with__any__other__species__or__cultures?_You frowned at the thought. Your train of thought was broken when you felt a tug on your dress.

"Excuse me, Princess," a small, purple, male echidna said, looking up at you innocently, "but if you're here and so are the heroes and that other guardian is over there, where's Mister Grant?"

Your heart sank as you looked down into his questioning eyes, knowing the answer may break his heart a little.

While you were worrying about how to explain to a small child that the leader of Gale Island was kidnapped, his kidnappers had already arrived at their next target: Volcano Island.

_What__a__strange__signal__I__'__m__getting__from__this__island.__It__'__s__as__if__.__.__.__no.__No__this__is__the__home__of__the__Master__Ruby__.__.__.__and__a__clan__of__echidnas__with__a__taste__for__war__that__rivalled__the__once-mighty__Knuckles__Clan,_ thought Claire in the mind of Doctor Eggman. _Waiting__for__that__group__wouldn__'__t__do__any__good__this__time;__guardians__or__not,__they__wouldn__'__t__be__welcome__on__this__island.__And__if__the__guardians__are__harmed__.__.__.__No.__No__having__them__harmed__is__not__an__option.__Just__like__the__guardian__of__the__Master__Topaz,__the__other__guardians__must__be__captured__along__with__their__sacred__gems__in__order__to__ensure__their__effectiveness._

"What are you going on about now, Claire?" Eggman asked aloud to the spirit sharing his body.

_Well, if the guardian is eliminated, there is a chance that the gem may also be lost until a new guardian has established themselves worthy, especially if the task hasn't been passed on to someone capable. Besides that, I have already told you that I don't plan on killing any of my kind. What we need is a way to capture the guardians without harming them._

"Well then, we'll just have to convince that clan to do our dirty work for us," smirked Eggman.

_I can feel the wheels turning in your head, Doctor. I can sense your plan. My energy has partially returned to me, so I will do what needs to be done. Make sure you're prepared for my return though, alright?_

And with that, Claire ripped her spirit from her host body and flung it towards the island. She could feel her presence in the world disintegrating with every passing second without a host, especially since she hadn't fully recovered from her last trip to Gale Island.

_I need to find someone weak, someone I can manipulate . . ._

She knew her odds were against her since this was one of the most strong-willed, powerful communities still in existence. Suddenly, something threw the odds back into her favour.

_My my. What are the chances of finding someone like you here on the island? Is this why I felt such a strange presence on this island? Well if that's the case, I won't even need to take over your body, though it's not like I have the energy for that anyway. All I need to do is speak with your mind._

Claire thrust her spirit into a young, deep blue echidna girl. Similar to her previous setup with Eggman, Claire didn't force the girl's spirit to one side and take over the motor controls. Instead, she simply sat in the girl's body, becoming the secondary spirit inside. She could feel her existence stabilize and her energy depleting at a much lower rate after making the connection and began to communicate with the girl's mind.

_Hello, child. How are you today?_

"Huh? W-what's going on?" the girl asked, confused as to why she was suddenly hearing voices. There was nobody else around, however, which only confused and frightened her more.

_It__'__s__alright.__Don__'__t__be__afraid__of__me.__My__name__is__Claire__and__I__'__m__here__to__help__you.__I__am__a__higher__power__and__I__'__m__here__to__warn__you,_she lied.

"Warn me? Warn me about what?"

_Of a war, my dear! A war!_

"War?"

_Yes, a war against Lava Island. Many locals here will be fighting for their homes. However . . . you're not one of them, are you?_

"What do you – "

_Your appearance . . . your demeanour . . . nothing about you says 'Lava Islander'. That fear and sadness written on your face and your deep blue colouring tells me more about you than where you are right now. You're from Teardrop Island, home of the Master Sapphire, am I correct?_

The girl was silent for a moment, unaware that Claire was connected to her thoughts. Memories fled through her mind furiously. Claire felt the memories of how this girl's island was also lost and how the mourning of the loss of everything she had ever loved had brought back the Master Sapphire to the world and was currently in her possession. Claire's hunch that this girl was the reason that there was a strange signal coming from was correct.

"Y-yes," the girl finally said as tears streamed down what seemed to be a path permanently etched into her cheeks. "When I lost everything . . . I found this island. It is my sanctuary . . . my salvation. I was too young to be a threat to them and since I had the Master Sapphire . . . they took me in."

_You poor, poor girl . . . and now this place that you can call home will be under attack soon. Other guardians and their reinforcements are coming to take over. Surely this island will be lost as yours was. That is . . . unless we do something about it._

"Can we . . . stop them?" she asked as the flow of tears down her cheeks seemed to intensify.

_Of course. Listen to my words and not only will we save the island, but you will become a hero. How would that feel? How would you like to be the outsider who saved them all?_

"A hero . . ." she repeated.

_Yes . . . now will you do what I say?_

"I shall listen to anything and everything you say, Claire, in order to save my new home," she pledged quickly, without a second thought.

Claire was elated. Not only did she find a subject that was the unintentional guardian of the Master Sapphire, but the girl was being so submissive that being in her body took almost none of Claire's energy. The spirit knew she'd be able to influence the girl for much longer than if she were to have just possessed her.

_Excellent. Now child, I must know: what is your name? What is the name of the young girl who will go down in history as a hero for Lava Island?_

"My name . . . my name is Sybil," she said, wiping her eyes.

_Sybil you say. Alright then. Moments ago, you were known simply as Sybil the Echidna. Now, you shall be known as Sybil the Prophet. Soon, you will be known as Sybil the Saviour. If you're ready to accept this destiny, then let us be off to the guardian of the Master Ruby to discuss battle plans._

Sybil nodded with determination and hurried off in search of her fellow guardian.


	31. Chapter 31

The Tornado cut through the sky on a frantic search for Eggman. Using the Master Emerald one again, and the general direction Grant pointed you in last time, you were able to get the faint signal of the Master Topaz.

_That's strange. I think it's the Master Topaz, but there's what feels like one or two other gems in its vicinity. But . . . why would three of them be on the same island?_

Your curiosity was put aside for the moment as you approached an area of increasing cloud density.

"I'm guessing that the signal's coming from that surreptitious cloud cover, right Lorr?" Tails asked.

"Yes," you said nodding, before realizing that he couldn't even see your nod since you were behind him, "the signal's coming from over there."

As you began entering the clouds, an intense wave of heat hit you.

"Woah! Those aren't normal clouds at all. That's steam!" Sonic exclaimed. "Why the heck is it so hot up here? I thought the temperature_ dropped_ when you got up higher!"

"It does," you explained in an even tone, keeping your eyes ahead," but does 'Lava Island' really need an explanation?"

"Eheheh, I guess not."

While the heat may have made you uncomfortable, it didn't make you nearly as uncomfortable as the sight that lay behind the clouds; when you looked down at the island, you saw seemingly every echidna on the island assembled in one area.

"What's . . . what's going on down there?" Knuckles asked, pointing to the cluster of echidnas.

"I'm not sure," you answered, "but if it's anything like what I've heard they've done in the past, they're not planning on giving us a warm welcome." Though a tad prejudice, your response seemed to hold some merit; the group below looked as though they were an army ready to march. As you approached in the small plane, you could make out that the platoon seemed to be focusing their attention on an auburn echidna and a smaller, deep blue echidna. The two echidnas seemed to be addressing the group. More importantly, behind the two mismatched echidnas sat two very powerful jewels, one on what appeared to be a traditional altar and a cheaper looking, makeshift one.

"My goodness, the Master Ruby _and _the Master Sapphire? On the same island? But . . .why?" You asked, not really expecting anyone in your crew to answer.

"I'm not sure," Shadow said, "but I'm reluctant to approach them directly like this. If they're as hostile as you say, Lorraine, then they probably will attack first and ask questions later if we start hovering over them. Even if we approach them on foot and land over there," he pointed towards a wooded area," I doubt it would cut down on much of the hostility, and would instead leave us much more open to an attack."

"Hmm, you have a point, Shadow," Tails agreed, "but what choice do we have? If we just wait for Eggman, he'll probably get away again. They might be a bit hostile, but we really should warn them anyway, right?"

Sonic nodded. "Yeah. Yeah we should. Tails, drop us off right next to those gems, alright?"

"Wh-what?" you exclaimed, "didn't we just decide that that's _not_ a good idea?"

"Relax Lorr," he assured, "I'm sure they'll listen. Besides, if it looks bad, Shadow can teleport us out, right?" He turned to smile his hedgehog ally. Shadow frowned at him in response. Though his ego probably liked being a major role in the plan, he was starting to get tired of seemingly being part of the group simply to use Chaos Control.

You drew a sigh, knowing this to be a really, really bad idea. Still, you put your faith in the blue hedgehog. "Fine. This'll end badly, but whatever. You won't listen to me anyway."

"Alright!" he yelled in triumph. "You stay in the air, Tails. We'll be back in a bit!"

"You got it, Sonic."

"Wait, we're _jumping_?" you panicked. Though Shadow proved earlier today that your fear was irrational, you still didn't feel like making a suicide jump into an army of hostile echidnas.

"Calm down, will ya?" Knuckles said to you in a tone that wasn't particularly reassuring. "It's not _that _far."

You looked down. It was still a good 30-foot drop. Your face went pale as you watched Sonic and Shadow jump down without hesitation. "Nope. Not gonna do it," you said to Knuckles, still staring at the ground and shaking your head.

"Yeah you are. You're the only one who seems to know what's goin' on so you're comin' whether you like it or not!" And with that, he grabbed you by the waist in one arm and the Master Emerald in the other as if he were unceremoniously carrying barrels, and leapt from the plane.

"No no no no no!" you yelled on the way down. The sudden change of momentum when his feet hit the ground almost made you throw up. Luckily, the trip itself was far shorter than most of your falls have been lately, and you recover fairly quickly when he releases you, though you still fall to your knees, hoping never to leave the ground again. You look up to see the blue female and auburn male echidnas. The female seemed to be no older than ten and, though she had an expression of determination, it appeared as though her face seemed more accustomed to a solemn frown. Her face had faint red lines that ran down her cheeks from her eyes downward as though she spent most of her time crying. The male on the other hand seemed proud, cynical even. He seemed to radiate power and hostility. He looked to be older, maybe old enough to be your father, holding onto his prime years with a deadly grasp. Though the girl didn't worry you very much, you were very concerned as to how the male would react.

"It is as I foretold," yelled the blue one to the onlookers, "the guardians have come and they have brought the surface dwellers as reinforcements!"

"Wait, you _knew_ we were coming?" Sonic asked, perplexed.

"Of course," the girl said, "for I was informed by a higher power that you would come. You're here to try and take over this island and claim both the Master Ruby and the Master Sapphire for yourselves, no?" There was something creepy about her tone, as though she truly believed that she was being visited by a higher power and took its woed above all else.

"Uhh, no actually," you said, getting to your feet, "we're actually here to stop your gems from being stolen. There's someone going around stealing them. His name's Eggman."

The male echidna laughed snidely at your warning. "Someone steal _our_ gems? Are you stupid? This is Lava Island, the most heavily guarded island of them all." He gestured to the army behind you. "Maybe it's the nature of this island, but those hailing from this land have a taste for war and bloodshed . . . even more than your clan did, guardian." He seemed to direct those last words at Knuckles. "No, I have no reason to believe that you're here to help us, considering this clan is not on particularly friendly terms with the rest of you." His hostility only seemed to intensify and he leered at your group. "Peace-loving, useless bunch you are."

"Why would you even say that?" You yell at him, not particularly in the mood to have your heritage insulted. "Just because we didn't exhaust our people trying to take over other islands-"

"Oh, it's not just the islands," he interrupted. "No, we had many opportunities to take over the surface again too, but the lot of you just _had_ to have a pact on keeping the Master gems safe. What's the point of having these gems if we're not going to use them? You're wasting their gift! You're wasting _your_ gift! The power of echidna blood . . . you waste that too! Sure, Pachacamac pushed through and conquered quite a bit, but when their numbers were hurt when Chaos descended, they were too humbled to try anything again. How stupid is that?"

You couldn't believe what you were hearing. The fact that someone was so set on sending off the vast majority of their brethren for war after war just because they could, left you feeling rather incredulous over the whole situation.

"You . . . you really think that my home wasted their gift too, Russell?" The girl asked, looking up at the older one.

"Yes," he said bluntly. "Bunch of crybabies. They didn't accomplish anything either."

The girl looked hurt at his comment. You saw her eyes well up, but she put on a brave face and blinked the tears away. It made sense to you now; the girl was from Teardrop Island and was probably the reason the Master Sapphire was sitting in front of them.

"Well, it doesn't matter," the older one said, "because if we take your Master Emerald, we'd probably be plenty powerful to accomplish a few things. The Master Amethyst is lost, so we'd have half of the Master Gems and the most powerful army. We could probably form a coup on the higher islands. Most of the lower ones aren't any use to us anyway. Hardly anyone left down there, am I right?"

The comment left you with a bitter taste in your mouth, but you were taking it better than Knuckles; a glance towards him revealed that he was, in fact, shaking with rage.

"You . . . you're horrible! We come here to give you a hand and you go and try to steal my Emerald? Not a chance, old man!" With that, Knuckles charged towards Russell. Before Knuckles could land a hit, however, he let out a moan of discomfort and dropped to the ground. You gasped at the event and rushed over to him.

"What was that?" Sonic asked, looking around.

"Was that Claire again?" Shadow wondered aloud, taking a defensive stance.

"Ah, that was a good shot, Sybil," Russell said to his blue echidna companion. In the midst of the commotion, Sybil was able to pull out what appeared to be a blow gun. Upon closer inspection, there was a dart wedged in Knuckles' arm. He looked to be still breathing, so it didn't seem lethal at least. You knelt down beside him and removed the dart.

Sybil looked at Shadow with both curiosity and fear regarding his previous comment. "Claire? You know of my higher power, Claire?"

"_She's_ you're higher power?" he asked, though he didn't wait for an answer. "Claire isn't really the kind of higher power you're envisioning, girl, she's-" His words were cut off by a scream emanating from Sybil.

"Oh, Shadow, Shadow, Shadow," the girl smiled coyly, "you might be cute but you sure are keen on thwarting my plans, just like the rest of your little friends. It's exhausting for a spirit like me, you know." In desperation, it seemed as though Claire fully possessed Sybil to prevent being found out.

Russell looked at his companion with confusion and slight annoyance. "Excuse me? Something wrong, Sybil?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing." She cleared her throat, as if trying to imitate the real Sybil. "Quickly now, Russell! We need to capture these two guardians, lest they get away with the Master Emerald. The divine voice says that if we can separate them from their group, we can win this! Your troops can handle those hedgehogs, but we must isolate the guardians now!" She reloaded her blowgun.

Russell nodded. "Well, I'm not sure what's going on in your head, but you're right about isolating the guardians." First, he turned to his army. "Citizens of Lava Island, go ahead and destroy the outsiders." Next, he turned to the Master Ruby. "Master Ruby, hear the call of your guardian. Lend me your power and we will conquer this world! Firewall!" At the beckon of its guardian, the Master Ruby seemed to erupt into a magnificent glow. A beam of light travelled from it and scorched the earth, leaving a trail of intense fire behind you, cutting Sonic, Shadow and the approaching army from sight. As if on queue, Eggman's ship flew in from behind the two guardians.

"Ah, this is working out even more perfectly than I imagined!" she giggled. You watched through as Russell looked up towards the ship and back to Sybil. Before he could even question what was going on, he dropped to another one of Sybil's darts.

"Claire, you're a monster," you muttered through clenched teeth at her. Your nose burned and your eyes watered from the smoke emitted by the fire behind you, but your anger was still apparent on your face. You watched through blurry, tear-filled eyes as Eggman's ship landed behind Sybil.

"Oh, that's harsh. I mean, I'm doing my best to fix everything you know." She reloaded her blowgun for a third time. "Please forgive me, Princess, but I think you'll be more compliant if you're asleep. I have a lot of lifting to do before my hold on this body wears off, you know." Before you could react, the dart was in your thigh. You felt your heart rate slow down and your body instantly become lethargic. Your consciousness faded as you and three additional guardians fell into the clutches of Claire and Eggman.


	32. Chapter 32

As you slowly started coming to, you could tell that your environment had changed. Though your eyes were closed and your other senses were a bit hazy, you could tell that you were no longer on Lava Island. No, you were laying on something much more artificial and mechanical. You could hear the faint sobbing of whom you assumed to be Sybil as well as a low conversation between Knuckles and Russell.

"Ugh, my body feels like crap. What's in those stupid darts anyway?" Knuckles asked in a frustrated tone.

"Oh relax, kid. They're just tranquillizers. You'll feel funny for a little bit, but it'll wear off soon. Heck, you're conscious already so you shouldn't complain too much."

"Yeah, I might be conscious and you might be conscious, but Lorr's still out like a light." Though you heard Knuckles mention your name, you're body wasn't quite ready to move or speak and thus you lay there, listening as intently as you could considering your head was still pretty fuzzy.

"Well, she's a bit smaller then us, so it'll take a bit longer to wear off on her. Not sure why you care though; she looks like she's from Thunder Island, right?" 

"Y-yeah . . ."

"Well her island's lost as is the Master Amethyst, so takin' her along is a waste of time. She doesn't have a militia for you to rely on that's for sure, so there's no way you'll be gettin' your Master Emerald back with her help, boy."

You could hear Knuckles shuffle around in anger. "Hey! She's done a lot to help me out so far! "

"Uh huh," you heard Russell say flatly, sceptical of Knuckles' response. "Oh, so remember how I mentioned that she's smaller? You _may_ want to check and make sure she's still breathin' and has a pulse. You know . . . check and make sure the dosage wasn't too high and _killed_ her."

You could hear Knuckles shuffle around again, though this time he clambered towards your direction. He quickly slipped his hand onto your wrist and checked your pulse. His touch seemed to bring you back to your senses a bit and you were able to mumble to him that you were alright. A sigh of relief escaped his lips as he sat down beside you.

"Yeah, I thought so. You're reaction said it all," Russell said smugly.

"It said what?"

"Nothin' boy. You just tend to your little friend or something." Russell then turned to Sybil. "And you. Will ya stop cryin' already?"

"I . . . I can't help it. T-this is all my fault," she sobbed. "I was made a fool and I took all of you down with me. I'm so sorry."

"Oh, don't worry, Miss. That spirit is rather tricky," said a familiar voice. You forced your eyes to focus on the speaker.

"Grant?" you asked softly, sitting up. Your movements were sluggish, but you were more alert than you were a few minutes ago.

"Of course," he smiled. "As grim as things appear, and as horrible as this might sound, I'm still a bit glad to have some company. Strength in numbers and all." You were relieved that he was alright, but a little sad that he was stuck here too.

"And what's stronger than six echidnas?" Russell asked, his pride clearly audible in every word he spoke.

You did the math – which took longer than you'd like to admit in your groggy state – and listed off the guardians aloud. "Me, Knuckles, Grant, Sybil, Russell . . . that's only five," you mutter. "Where's the sixth?"

"Me," said a voice behind you. You spun around to see a very solemn-looking echidna with a distinctively pale-blue coloration. His unmoving posture and the quiet apathy in his demeanour seemed to reflect his icy blue complexion, and it gave you the vibe of the isolation of a mountaintop.

"Yes, that's Dean of Frigid Island," Grant explained. "He was captured about forty minutes ago while the four of you were unconscious." Dean nodded at the comment, confirming it to be the truth.

Russell Scoffed. "Well now that all the happy little introductions are done, how do you propose we get out of here, huh?"

As if to respond to his question, you heard a startling noise all around you. It was the unrelenting discord of metal hitting the metal hull of the ship you were in. While the noise was effective in bringing you back to an alerted state, it also made you latch onto Knuckles' arm in surprise. You weren't sure if it was because of you or the noise, but he tensed up.

"Ugh! What's that rotten noise?" Russell asked, clenching his head.

"It would appear as though someone is trying to shoot us out of the air," Dean stated, his even tone barely audible over deafening hum that hung in the air.

Not far away from Eggman's ship was the attacking vessel, piloted by Tails. Through some miracle, they were able to not only rescue Lava Island from a plummet similar to the one Gale Island suffered earlier that day, but due to the tactical nature of Lava Island, were able to locate the remaining two islands with the help of the locals. Apparently, even those from Russell's clan could show appreciation and, because they had been planning a coup for decades, already had the locations of Frigid Island and Serenity Island – as well as where the fallen Islands were previous to their descent – and the trio headed off post-haste to Frigid Island. They had caught Eggman there too, but were much too late to do anything more than teleport the island to safety again. They only had one island left: Serenity Island. They managed to locate Eggman on their way to the island and were now on the assault, knowing that the final island was very close and was their last chance to rescue their comrades and, knowing Eggman, the world.

"Tails, are you sure it's wise to shoot them when your comrades are aboard?" Shadow asked with a look of concern.

"Perfectly fine," Tails assured, "I'm only shooting at the weapons aboard the ship so that we can not only render it defenceless, but encourage him to land. If we do get close enough to the island for him to land, I may put some pressure on an engine, but not enough for them to crash into the ocean. Promise."

Sonic smirked at Shadow. "I'm surprised you're concerned though Shadow. That's not like you."

"Yes, well it would be unfortunate if you killed everyone aboard, correct?"

"Well duh. I'm just saying that it's not like you to be so worried about anyone. Now, I'm _pretty _sure you didn't suddenly become best friends with Knuckles, Grant, Sybil, Russell or that other fellah. That just leaves . . ."

Shadow knew what he was hinting at and retorted. "In addition to those lives which I'm sure you of all people would not wish to sacrifice, even the Doctor isn't someone you'd willingly murder, Sonic. Rouge works for GUN as do I, so I owe her some loyalty as well. As for Lorraine . . . well she is my ally now too. She's helped me locate the Chaos Emeralds, so I owe her my loyalty as well."

Sonic still had a smirk on his face, as though he were still a bit unconvinced. Regardless, he dropped the subject. "Alright then. Tails, keep the pressure on Eggman to land on the last island instead of hovering around like he's been. When he does, Shadow, you go in and break everyone out. I'll handle Eggman. Got it?"

"Okay, Sonic!" Tails confirmed. Shadow simply scoffed, as if to acknowledge the plan but not particularly keen on being instructed by Sonic.

Inside the ship, the sound of the attack continued to echo through the hull. The sound deafened the lot of you for a few minutes at a time, followed by the sound of creaking metal as a cannon was blown off into the ocean below. The sound of Eggman retaliating could also be heard as the remaining weapons fired at the small and agile ship to little avail. You sat there, gritting your teeth and clinging to Knuckles' arm. The noise was giving you a headache and filling you with anxiety. Suddenly, a worse noise filled your ears; it was the sound of engine failure. It was immediately followed by the sound of Sybil's crying growing louder, Russell growling out an expletive, the gasps of Knuckles and Grant and your own voice, which was a terrified scream.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! We're all gonna die and it's all my fault!" Sybil screeched through her sobs.

"We're not gonna die, so will you girls shut up already?" Russel commanded. "Can't you guys tell that we're not fallin' from the sky or anythin'?"

He was right. The usual sensation of cruel gravity that came from falling wasn't present. Yes, the ride was a bit bumpier, but you could tell the ship was still under the control of the pilot more or less. The assault outside also seemed to have ceased. You relaxed a little bit and stopped screaming, but you still held onto Knuckles tightly. You felt his eyes on you, and it made you glance up at his face. His mouth was open as if he was in the midst of speaking, but you heard nothing. He seemed a bit frozen actually, but it didn't surprise you very much; you were getting used to his nervousness, even though you hadn't seen it flare up for a couple of days now. You tried to say something comforting, but you weren't really sure what to say.

After a few moments, something put an end to the awkward silence and uncomfortable flight: land. The craft had done everything it could to keep airborne, but it finally careened with the slab of earth that floated in the sky. The ship had arrived at its destination: Serenity Island.


	33. Chapter 33

Unlike Eggman's ship, the Tornado landed gently and gracefully on the floating island. There was something very serene about the atmosphere. It was reminiscent of a sort of paradise told of in stories. The gentle, flowing rivers, the chiselled buildings, manicured vegetation and of course the massive diamond on a marble pedestal clearly visible from every corner of the small island… it all seemed a bit too perfect; the only blemish seemed to be the unsightly and slightly mangled ship that belonged to Eggman several yards away. The two hedgehogs and the fox observed these surroundings briefly before exiting the small craft. Shadow, knowing his first duty was to free the echidnas, made a beeline for the ship, leaving Sonic and Tails to formulate a further plan.

_I'll need to infiltrate the ship and release the holding cell, _he thought to himself_. It may be a tad hectic in there, so it will either be very easy or very difficult to slip through. I'll have to be quick and not linger in there too long_.

Luckily for Shadow, the echidnas had no intention of lingering in their prison and were already hard at work on their freedom. As he approached the craft, his intense pace of urgency slowed as he was faced with the thunderous calamity coming from the other side of the thick hull.

"Come on_ ladies_; put your backs into it! One, two, three, go!" commanded Russell. He and the other 5 guardians charged at the steel wall that separated them from the island air. Their charge left the wall dented, to say the least. "One more time! One, two, three, go!" And with that, the group broke free of their prison. Shadow stepped back, avoiding the debris that exploded from the ship. Even though he was several meters from the ship, the force that was able to shatter steel caused the debris to fly quite a distance.

"Shadow!" you exclaimed, seeing the hedgehog outside of the craft and moving towards him. "You followed us all this way? Where are the other two?"

Sonic and Tails meanwhile, were temporarily sidetracked from confronting Eggman, when one of the inhabitants of Serenity Island who happened to be lingering around the altar, approached them.

"Oh dear… what's all this?" Sonic and Tails turned to see the young adult, female echidna looking curiously at the visitors. She was tall, pale cream and her conservative white outfit seemed to flow about her so delicately yet protectively as if she herself were some sort of fragile, heavenly being. She moved towards them, her step graceful and calm even in such a situation. "What brings all of you to our little paradise?"

"Uh, actually, we've come to save it from …well that," Sonic replied, pointing at the large metal monster that was sprawled across the carefully manicured grass.

"I see…" the echidna nodded stiffly. "Well, outside help is usually not something we are used to on this island, but I suppose it isn't entirely unappreciated." She looked each of them for a moment, as if trying to assess their necessity in protecting her home. "If you'll excuse me," she continued, "I must take my place in protecting the purest essence of this island." She walked back toward the Master Diamond.

"Um, excuse me, Miss," Tails began as the lady began stepping in the direction of the enormous altar, "are you the guardian of this place?"

She didn't answer immediately. Instead, she continued at an even pace. As she walked on, the terrain under her feet changed from perfectly manicured grass to the perfectly carved marble of the stairs belonging to the altar. "Correct," she said at last. Her eyes moved back onto the two once more as she stopped in front of the diamond.

"It concerns me how much you seem to know. Finding this island, knowing of what I am. While you have yet to do damage beyond attaining knowledge of our whereabouts, please understand that we must protect the purity and serenity of this place, and that altering it in any way will result in a swift purging." Her hand caressed the giant gem. Responding to the touch of its guardian, the Master Diamond let off a gentle glow, which seemed to creep up around her fingers.

"If you truly have come as saviours, then go and do what is just. Please don't make us have to banish you from this place because you are imperfect demons in disguise. I hope for your sake, the true demons are aboard that monstrous craft. I will be watching and accompanying you until this island has been purified once more." The two nodded and began making their way towards the craft with the Guardian. They rejoined their companions just as Eggman emerged from his ship.

"My ship! Look what you've all done to my ship!" barked Eggman.

"Eggman!" Sonic yelled, "It's the end of the line!"

Grant spoke up as well. "Yes, this has certainly gone too far. I'll have to ask that you return our Gems of Heaven immediately, moustachioed man!"

"All I want are seven little gems and the lot of you had to go and make it difficult. I have five of them right now, but you little pests are ruining absolutely everything! Argh!" You looked on in surprise as the doctor clutched his head in pain. "C-Claire… stop this…!"

"That man is possessed by evil!" The pale cream guardian of Serenity Island stepped forward, pointing an accusing finger towards the doctor. "Hear me, Master Diamond! It is I, your guardian, Paige! With your power, I shall purify this man and, in turn, the evils corrupting this place!" With another hand gesture from this woman you've come to know as "Paige" (and perhaps "crazy" or "overzealous" judging by the intense righteousness she seemed to exude), you noticed the Master Diamond a slight distance away began to radiate a very intense light.

"May the light banish you to the shadows of another realm, demon!" As if at once, the light being radiated from the Master Diamond in intensity and seemed to focus purely on Paige. The light paused only for an instant on Paige and proceeded to shine through her, as if she were a magnifying glass, directing and intensifying the beam further. The light then came into contact with Eggman, causing him to writhe in what seemed to be a far from pleasant makeshift exorcism. As the light dissipated, Eggman was left, winded but seemingly unharmed, limply standing.

_You're talented, young guardian. Driving me out of my host was not a pleasant experience however, and, much like how the Doctor insulted my own flesh and blood, I will not take such actions lightly. _The voice sounded familiar. You looked around for a source, but could see none. Based on the confused expressions around you, you assumed that the others did not know the source either. Finally, from behind the doctor appeared the 3 Chaos Emeralds he escaped Gale Island with. They orbited in front of him ominously. The remaining four Chaos Emeralds made their way from Sonic and Shadow to join their three brethren. They swirled around faster, until they were but spinning orbs of light fused as one. As they continued their circular pattern, they made their way towards the group of heroes and guardians. The light stabilized, forming shapes in the air that eventually took the form of a female echidna. She was translucent, but clearly visible. Purple, and wearing a plain white dress as well as a powerful and slightly cynical expression, she hung inches from the ground, staring at the group.

"Are you…Claire…?" you whispered.

The image was quiet for a moment, though a slightly bitter smile crossed her lips before speaking. "Hello again, Princess." She gave a stiff bow towards you. "Hello to all of the Guardians and those who cared enough to join us today on this day of liberation. Our gracious hosts, the inhabitants of Serenity Island will be honoured by this event. I see your worried faces, but I assure you that I'm here to help. Allow me to introduce myself. My name… is Claire. I was, in the past, a counsellor for the great monarchy of Thunder Island. In fact, I nominated myself as the next Guardian. However, I apparently did not have the heart for it. They chose someone flightier, weaker. That guardian failed their job, hence why my home is under the waves of the ocean. I swear to you all here today you will see what heart I have. Even in my death I wish to liberate you from the shackles of confinement and mandatory lifestyles. We are a talented and righteous species and we deserve our right to be in the rest of the world as much as the other species! I can make this a reality… but first I need the 7 Masters of power to cease to be! Their power is dangerous. We guard them, knowing that the rest of the world could not handle this responsibility. We must no longer live isolated lives in the dark. Ignorance is not bliss. For us to be liberated from these responsibilities, the Seven Gems of Heaven must vanish from this world… forever!"


	34. Chapter 34

"Claire, you crazy half-invisible whatever-you-are," Russell burst out, "do you really think we'd be any better off down there if we can't use our power to take over?"

"I can assure you, Guardian, I am far from crazy. In death, I am not restricted by the limitations of my previous body. I can see and think clearly. I understand more than you possibly ever could in your life. With this foresight I can assure you that this is the best move for our species. I refuse to leave this world knowing that this senseless death I've suffered will be repeated countless times until our species no longer exists!"

"Am I seriously arguing with a ghost?" Russell asked, turning back to the group. You noticed that the woman's paranormal presence caused Knuckles to lose some of the colour in his face. Perhaps he really didn't like ghosts after all. Your eyes turned back towards Claire's pale figure who began a speech once more.

"Allow me to enlighten you, my brethren, about what I've learned about the mystical 7 Master Gems, of which you are all familiar with I'm sure. While over the years, it's come to appear as though we protect them as our heritage and to protect the surface from their power, we protect them even further than that. You see, while not what one would typically deem gods, they are gods in the sense that they need followers to exist. One must exercise their ludicrous restrictions and believe they will better our existence. But may I ask you how they better our existence?"

"They give us power," snorted Russell, who still thought she was speaking nonsense.

"They give us health and protection," whispered Paige, who was a bit surprised at herself for answering a malevolent spirit.

"They… they give us purpose," you said, biting your lip.

_If it weren't for my seeking love and trying to restore the Master Amethyst, what kind of goal would I have? What would be my purpose?_ You thought to yourself worryingly. You didn't like the sense of self-doubt your former subject was stirring inside you.

"The truth is," she continued, "they don't do any of those things. What kind of power can it give you if you're trapped forever on an island? What's the point of having protection and health if there's nothing to protect you from up here? And Princess, while you've spent much of your life on the surface, do you really feel as though your purpose is to find some sort of love and then isolate yourself from them on some floating island?"

You didn't like to admit it – nor did anyone else – but she had a point somehow.

"I'm not taking your power, safety or purpose, Guardians. I'm giving you freedom, the freedom to return to the surface, to interact with others. Allow me to break the shackles by taking these Master Gems to the other side with me, where they'll become nothingness and never be a burden to our species again."

"I have to inquire," spoke Dean, for the first time since your introduction in Eggman's ship, "if they are as godlike as you imply, could we not simply refuse their existence to erase them from this world? Wouldn't their existence return if we hold faith in them as well? Why would taking them to the other side be of any benefit?"

Claire's transparent face turned to the inquisitive echidna and frowned. "After thousands of years tending to them, do you really think each and every citizen of your island will denounce their power? I think not. No, even if I could trust that you would do such a thing, these gems have evil in them. They came to us in our time of weakness.

"Chief Pachacamac of what is now Angel Island was the first of our kind to come across one of these gems in the care of chao and Chaos. The chao lived a peaceful, simplistic life, which the Master Emerald happens to enforce as the way its followers should live. Pachacamac, however, wanted power and sought the power of the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds. Most of the remaining echidna clans needed an answer to this power, though that particular clan's warmongering ways were put to rest by that point and the Master Emerald's power stabilized. That's when, one by one, we somehow managed to discover other powerful gems. We used them to support our ambitions, and, knowing the power they held, kelp them for ourselves. For some," her eyes moved to Russell, "it was for militaristic power. For others, once they learned their lesson," hey eyes moved to Knuckles, "it was to keep the power safe in a community that knew what it was capable of, guarding it from the rest of civilization's misuse of them. They came to us in a time of weakness when we sought power and safety, and now, we're stuck with the responsibility of keeping them to ourselves in isolation to make sure the rest of civilization doesn't misuse them in such a way that could rule or destroy the planet. Let me rid you of this burden, brethren."

"Wait, hold up. Hold up!" Eggman yelled, his arms flailing in what appeared to be anger and a desire to be the center of attention. "You said that I could use these gems to take over the world with their power!"

A colder than usual expression crossed Claire's face as she glared at the doctor. "I simply stated, Doctor, that it would grant a wish. I did not specify that it was your wish. It is, in fact, my wish. It's my wish to free my brethren."

"Yeah? Well how's that supposed to go down anyway then, huh?" Russell huffed while Eggman threw a slight fit on the sidelines. "I'm not the greatest at math, but aren't we short one?" You hung your head a bit at his mention of your failure.

"I'm glad you mentioned that, war-bringer." Claire grinned bitterly towards you. "You see, if I were appointed guardian all those years ago, perhaps the gem would not have been lost. I can assure you though, I would not have failed quite as miserably as my dear Princess, here." You continued to hand your head as Claire's ghastly presence drew closer. "You see, Princess, while you were designated as the guardian and the one to revive our great island, you never had it in you, did you?" You could feel the chill in the air from her spirit. Her translucent face was inches from yours as she continued to trample your self-esteem. "I remember you as a child. Artistic, flighty and the type to think that some perfect prince would come and sweep you off your feet. That's not how it works, Princess! Even I know that!" Her words grew louder as you bit your lip. "Love doesn't just happen in passing by!"

You felt a tug at your wrist and took a few steps back at the guidance of the tug. "I would appreciate it, phantom," said Shadow, the one guiding you backwards, "if you would stop berating my ally!" Your vision was blurry with the formation of tears, but when you turned to look, you could see his expression was indeed not a pleasant one. In fact, most of your friends seemed to look pretty hostile at her words. Knuckles, even with what you assumed to be a fear of ghosts, was standing protectively in front of you.

"Oho, what's this?" Claire's eyebrows raised as her interest was piqued. "Don't tell me Princess that you actually _have _been trying to get to know some of the surface dwellers?"

"I…" you began, unsure of what to say. You had definitely made friends on the surface, especially these last few days.

"Perhaps… perhaps the Master Amethyst isn't lost after all!" She giggled with excitement and rushed towards you. "Maybe all you need is a push in the right direction!"


	35. Chapter 35

Her spirit made an agile movement past Knuckles and darted straight into you. You felt her force her consciousness into your body. She hadn't taken over your motor controls, thankfully, but it was still a very uneasy presence in your skull.

"Let's see…" you felt her say from inside you. "Tell me Princess, what have you been up to these past few days. Who have you been talking to, laughing with and enjoying you time with?"

Her words sparked memories inside of you. You had no intention of explaining your activities to her, but you couldn't help but think internally. Unfortunately, she was quite internal at the time, so she heard and felt everything you did those past few days.

"Discovered the Master Emerald, ooh got into a fight with its guardian? How cruel of him to punch you, Princess. What's this? He shattered his sacred gem? Oh, I like him. Oh, you went with him to find them. A shame. It seemed you got along quite well with the little fox boy and… oh that handsome one over there? Looks like you followed him like a little lost puppy, didn't you? I see your anger with the guardian, your comradery with the blue hedgehog and your loyalty to the black one. You've done quite lately, haven't you? Yes, you've spent a lot of time with them. I think though, the one you followed unwaveringly this entire time is…"

And it was at that point you no longer seemed to be able to control your body. You felt yourself turn around and a grin spread across your face. It was that same disgusting smile Claire flashed at you before.

"You're Shadow, correct?" she said through your lips.

"Get out of her. Now," he replied sternly.

"Look," she continued, ignoring his demand, "you've spent a lot of time with the princess lately, haven't you?" She paused, waiting for a response. When none came, she continued. "She seems to be pretty fond of you I think. I mean, I saw the way she followed you around like a little puppy. Plus, your defensiveness in regards to this whole thing more or less shows that you are at least mildly concerned for her well-being. Could you just do me a favour and do something to sort of… seal the deal on some sort of romantic feelings? I'm kind of pressed for time here and you seem like the best candidate at the moment to bring that wretched gem back so I can rid the world of it forever." Her tone for asking Shadow to strike a love confession from you was the equivalent of a friend asking another friend for $20.00. To put it simply, it was if she was passing this off as no big deal to him, even though it was quite a big deal at the time to her. You were quite appalled. "Oh, I have an idea," she chimed. "How about a kiss? I know I wouldn't mind it too much and I'm sure it'll spark some sort of latent feelings inside this foolish girl."

Shadow frowned at you hesitantly. It appeared as though Claire's words struck something inside of him, as though part of him wondered if you actually did have feelings for him. "Do you not think, Phantom, that if, for some reason, Lorraine has any particular attraction to anyone, it should be a matter between herself and her partner? More importantly, I feel as though you, much like some others I could mention," he glanced briefly at Sonic, "may have the wrong idea about my relationship with Lorraine. She is my ally and-"

"Ally shmally," Claire scoffed with your voice. "Look, even if it's not true, can't you humour me?" Your body took a step forward. "I was asking you to cooperate, but I'm not going to ask you again, hedgehog." Your hands, under the control of Claire, latched onto his wrists. "I'll make it quick, but the memory will last a lifetime. I promise."

_No, no stop!_ You shouted from inside your own head. _This is ridiculous! Is this your idea of matchmaking you psychopath?! _She was strong now though, so as hard as you tried to regain control, she seemed to lock you out.

"Umm… what should we do, Sonic?" Tails asked quietly, feeling kind of awkward about the situation. It kind of interrupted the flow of Sonic's usual climactic defeat of evil, after all.

"Shall I exorcise the malevolent spirit again? It would be quite painful for the innocent guardian, however." Paige's offer was met with generally negative feedback, though Knuckles made no comment since he was quite incredulous of the scene unfolding in front of him.

"Maybe we should figure out a way to defeat her after she's left Lorr's body and after… that" Sonic chuckled worriedly. Thus, they discussed how to affect the spirit out of your earshot and left her to Shadow and Knuckles for a moment.

As your face approached Shadow's you could see his face tensing up in hesitation. Still, regardless of the straits Claire was putting him through, he kept eye contact with you. You wondered to yourself – though, in retrospect you realized that Claire could hear you – what in your memories could have given Claire the idea that you and Shadow were attracted to each other. Yes, you spent a good deal of the past few days with him, but that's the reason you two were friends in the first place. You agreed with the ghastly woman inside you that he was indeed handsome, but you were reasonably certain that his loyal and surprisingly kind nature combined with his outward appearance was where the attraction ended.

"I can feel it, Princess. He makes you feel safe. He makes you feel happy. Why can't you at least be open to the idea?" Her words, while not spoken aloud, rang in your consciousness loud and clear. You chose not to accept them, however.

Your face approached further until you could feel the warmth from proximity of each other's skin. Perhaps it was because it was still you who was in front of him and not the image of Claire, but he seemed to refrain from escaping your grasp. He was reasonably strong though, so you knew he could, but probably not without hurting you. You concluded that this was probably why he was hesitating to push you away. Still, he didn't look like he was particularly keen on the idea of what was happening either. Rather, he seem pretty shocked that it was happening at all.

While Shadow refrained from any violence towards you, Knuckles, on the other hand, had no qualms on hurting someone. Something. Anything that was making this scene actually happen. He leapt into action, his fist aimed in the direction of your current interaction.

"You leave her alone!" he shouted. You watched Shadow, bound by your own hands, brace for a blow from an enraged echidna. Luckily for him, Claire's quick actions blocked the blow, grabbing his punch out of the air with your fist.

"Listen, guardian," she hissed, "I know I need to keep you alive to maintain the existence of the Master Emerald and also because you are my brethren, but I'm willing to incapacitate you at this point if you don't behave!"

Claire had your eyes locked on Knuckles. His expression was fierce, but anxious. It looked like he didn't want to fight you as much as you didn't want to fight him. He pulled his arm away, but remained in a boxing stance.

"I said leave her alone!"

"Have it your way!" Claire shouted, swinging at him. He was able to block the blow. You sat helplessly in you your own body, watching yourself trying for a knock-out punch on him. He was good at blocking the blows, but you could tell he was better at offense than defense. Still, he held back and took no swings at you.

_No! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Don't you dare hurt him!_ You yelled inwardly at the malevolent spirit, hoping to somehow deter her.

"Interesting," smirked Claire. "You know, guardian, this whole attack is striking quite a bit of anger with the Princess. She's far too weak willed to push me out in this state though. Don't tell me you became friends with her like the fox boy after you knocked her out cold when you first met? Is that why you're not fighting seriously?"

_Knocked me out? Yes, a knockout! That's the answer!_

Knuckles, in his clumsy defense, let a blow get through. Your fist met his gut and it knocked the wind out of him quite well. You gasped inwardly; the blow seemed to hurt you as well, albeit emotionally. It sparked something inside you though. Watching someone close to you get injured like that seemed to ignite your inner flame, and it burned with fury. Your fists moved to finish incapacitating him, but this you wouldn't allow.

_I said stop! _

Your arms stopped in mid swing as you vied for control of your own body for a moment. Through gritted teeth, you managed to mutter: "Knock... knock me out, Knuckles."

"Lorr?" Knuckles blinked, wondering how you were able to get a word in.

"Trust me. Please."

"Enough, Princess!" Claire shouted aloud, able to regain speech again. Unfortunately for Claire – and, in a way, yourself – you were able to delay her power over your arms long enough for Knuckles to make a move.

"Okay, Lorr. I trust you and… I'm sorry!" With that, his fist collided with your face and your surroundings began to dull as your consciousness faded again.


End file.
